UHCOLN LESSONS 
FOR TO-DAT 

By 

GARRETT NEWKIRK 




Class _L_^_ 
Book___ 



Gopglit]^°j!iSt 



CQEffilGHT DEPOSm 



LINCOLN LESSONS FOR TODAY 



LINCOLN LESSONS 
FOR TODAY 



By 



GARRETT NEWKIRK 



' Today includes yesterday, and 
will he yesterday-, tomorrow" 




NEW YORK 

DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 

1921 






Copyright, 1921, by 
DUFFIELD ^& COMPANY 



J I- C* iC U LI 
Printed in the United States of America 



g)CU630932 









<n 



TO 

MY WIFE 

MARTHA THE FAITHFUL 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Man 1 

Early Addresses. I 3 

Early Addresses. II 7 

Early Addresses. Ill 11 

Early Addresses. IV 15 

Early Addresses. V 18 

The Gettysburg Address 21 

The Wise Men not Consulted 24 

Super-Great Leaders 27 

Not Many Equals in History 30 

Who Was Lincoln's Best Friend? 34 

His Conscience 37 

His Heredity 40 

Was He an Educated Man? 43 

Education op Patriotism 47 

Education by Exclusion 51 

He Went to School — To Himself 54 

He Specialized 57 

His Second Special Course 59 

Why He Studied Euclid 62 

Did Euclid Make Him President? 66 

Three-inch Yardsticks 70 

His Religious Creed 73 

His Religion 76 

A Church Member at Large 79 

His Great Sermon 82 



Contents 

PAOB 

For Christmas and New Year 86 

To All Patriots 89 

Other Nations 91 

Guarded Speech 94 

Farewell 97 

On Childhood Reading 100 

Brevity of Speech 103 

Stanton's Vision 106 

The Unselfish Man: — Wants Less, not More . . 109 

The Man Who Stated with His Job 112 

The Monument op Living Stones 116 

Was He a Disciplinarian? 119 

Adventure and Escape — 1828 123 

Pay Heed to His Words 126 

Campaign Expenses 130 

A "Six Bit" Campaign 133 



LINCOLN LESSONS FOR TODAY 



LINCOLN LESSONS 
FOR TODAY 



THE MAN 

ECAUSE of personality unique in manner, 
simple and unstudied; because of his hon- 
esty, undeviating and sincere, his intimate knowl- 
edge and understanding of his fellow men, with 
kindness for all; because of the purity of his life, 
his courtesy to women, his respect for the aged, 
his affection for children; because of the accuracy 
and depth of his thinking, his ability to embody 
the greatest thought in fewest words, his humor, 
his logic, his directness of purpose and homely 
simplicity; because of his modesty, unselfishness 
and infinite patience; because of his patriotism 
and the dominant part he played in the most 
important crisis of a nation's history; because 
of the love he inspired in the hearts of millions and 
the loyal devotion of armies and navies; because 
of his tragic end and the mournfullest night this 
country ever knew — Abraham Lincoln com- 



2 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

mands our highest admiration, affection and 
gratitude. He stands before us as the most 
interesting figure and the greatest save one in 
American history. 

In all history we hear of no other who within 
fifty years after his death became so universally 
respected and beloved, for whom so many had the 
feehng almost of personal kinship. 

As the tender thoughts of a mother, or the 
admonitions of a dying father, so come his unfor- 
getable words to us in time of trial or distress; 
and should there be temptation to wrong-doing we 
shall see before us, Hke a mentor with uplifted 
hand, his towering Conscience. 



EARLY ADDRESSES 



SOME have spoken of these disparagingly, as 
having Httle value. Truth is that a number 
of subjects discussed in the thirties and early 
forties have little interest comparatively for 
readers of a later generation: and few of the 
critics have taken time to consider carefully those 
early first deliverances. Bearing in mind the 
conditions then present, we shall find them well 
worthy of study, showing the maturity of thought 
already possessed by a very young man. We 
will be forced to the conclusion that in some re- 
spects the education of the boy and youth must 
have been pretty thorough, notwithstanding his 
lack of schooling. In one way or another he had 
acquired the essentials of knowledge that justified 
his entrance into public life. 

The first address to be included in "The Com- 
plete Works'^ * of Lincoln was written for, "the 
people of Sangamon County, ^^ when Lincoln was 
a candidate for the office of Representative in the 

* Edited by Nicolay and Hay. 



^ Lincoln Lessons for Today 

legislature of Illinois. It was dated March 9, 
1832, when he was only twenty- three years and 
three weeks old. Two years before, in the same 
month of March, he had arrived in the adjoining 
county of Macon, mud-bespattered, driving an ox 
team. Immediately he had helped build a log 
cabin, split rails for the fencing of ten acres of 
prairie, helped plow the field and plant it with sod- 
corn. The following spring he had engaged him- 
self to Orcutt to take a flat-boat to New Orleans 
for the wage of twelve dollars per month. And 
now, one year later, probably without an un- 
patched suit of clothes, he is a candidate for the 
legislature, and issues his address in the form of 
hand bills that are sent for distribution to the 
several townships. 

He starts out with the question of internal 
improvements in relation to Sangamon County 
itself, as yet without connection with the outside 
world or adequate markets, except by the poorest 
wagon roads running fifty miles to the Illinois 
River, or to the new town on Lake Michigan, 
one hundred and seventy-five miles distant. 
Under present circumstances the young states- 
man favors the improvement of the Sangamon 
River as the only one the people are able 
to pay for. He shows in detail how this can be 
accomplished, as no other man probably in that 



Early Addresses - 5 

county knew. It would, he thought, make the 
river navigable ^^for boats of twenty-five to thirty 
tons' burden." Yet he says, ''No other improve- 
ment that reason will justify us in hoping for can 
equal in utility the railroad. But, however de- 
sirable it* may be, however high our imaginations 
may be heated by thoughts of it, there is always a 
heart-appalhng shock accompanying the amount of 
its cost which causes us to shrink from our pleasing 
anticipations.'' The cost had been estimated at 
$290,000 by its projectors. 

Then he attacks ' ' the practice of loaning money 
at exorbitant rates of interest" — something that 
no new community has ever been entirely able to 
escape. He would of course favor restrictive laws 
upon usury in the State. Such laws were passed 
not many years later. 

The next subject for consideration by the Legis- 
lature on which Lincoln lays particular stress, is 
that of education. Considering that he had not 
been to school himself a whole year altogether, 
this seems remarkable. First of all he takes the 
patriotic view ''That every man may receive at 
least a moderate education, and thereby be en- 
abled to read the histories of his own and other 
countries, and duly appreciate the value of our 
free institutions ... is of vital importance, to say 

* The line proposed ran to the Illinois River and beyond. 



6 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

nothing of all being able to read the scriptures 
and other works of both a reUgious and moral 
nature for themselves/' 

We should remember that at this time, or not 
long before, in a number of the western states, a 
considerable minority of the people could not 
write their own names, but in signing legal docu- 
ments made their X or mark. The common 
school system of Illinois had been established by 
law seven years before, but, owing to the thinly 
settled condition of the State and the general 
poverty, there had been but a slight advance in 
popular education. 



EARLY ADDRESSES 

II 

IN his first address: '^To the voters of Sangamon 
County/^ announcing his candidacy for the 
legislature, it is interesting to note that Lincoln 
was considerably less than half way from the day 
of his birth to that time when his voice should 
ring out ''high toned and clear, across the waiting 
land," in the conflict with Douglas for supremacy 
in the Prairie State. 

He was little more than a youth, scarce removed 
from the ax and plow-handles, just away from the 
fiatboat floating down the Sangamon, the Illinois, 
and the Mississippi. And yet, in this almost 
boyish address he struck the keynote of his whole 
public career. 

First, devotion to the truth: "Upon the subjects 
above treated, I have spoken as I thought. I 
may be wrong in regard to any or all of them, but 
holding it a sound maxim that it is better to be 
sometimes right than at all times wrong, as soon 
as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall 
be ready to renounce them." 



8 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Second, his ambition: '^ Every man is said to 
have his peculiar ambition. I can say, for one, 
that I have no other so great as that of being truly 
esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself 
worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed 
in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. 
I am young, and unknown to many of you. I 
was born, and have ever remained, in the most 
humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popu- 
lar relations or friends to recommend me. My 
case is throwoi exclusively upon the independent 
voters of the country; if I am elected they will 
have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall 
be unremitting in my labors to compensate. 
But, if the good people in their wisdom shall see 
fit to keep me in the background, I have been too 
faixdliar with disappointments to be very much 
chagrined. 

Your friend and fellow citizen, 

A. Lincoln.^* 



He had little opportunity of following up the 
address and getting acquainted with the '^many'^ 
who did not know him in uther parts of the large 
county. 

The ink was barely dry on the handbill address > 
when the Black Hawk war broke out. In little 
more than a month Lincoln was elected Captain 



Early Addresses 

of the local company of volunteers by a three to 
one vote, and was on the way to the scene of con- 
flict. Late in the summer, after a reenlistment 
and discharge with the war practically ended, he 
returned to the political field of Sangamon. Hav- 
ing had their horses stolen, he and several friends 
were forced to make most of their way back on 
foot. The election took place on the 6th of 
August. This was the only election in which Lin- 
coln was ever defeated by a direct vote of the 
people. Thirty-five years later, when Douglas 
won the senatorship, the defeat came at the hands 
of the legislature, not by popular vote. But in 
the democratic precinct of New Salem, where 
Lincoln was acquainted, he, a Whig, received 
227 of the 300 votes cast. After this first political 
campaign he was elected to the Illinois legisla- 
ture for three consecutive terms, and declined 
the fourth nomination. 

What justified Lincoln at this early period of his 
life, with so little of preparation — as we suppose — 
in aspiring to so important a position as that of a 
legislator for the state? First, we may say, it 
was the day of ambitious young men in the new 
commonwealth. They were coming from the East 
and Southeast in rapidly increasing numbers and 
these young voters were inclined to favor candi- 
dates of their own age rather than older men, 



10 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

who for the most part were unprogressive, if not 
ignorant. A few years later, in this same environ- 
ment, Stephen A. Douglas, four years younger 
than Lincoln, recently come from Vermont, 
where he had been a cabinet maker with limited 
education, became in rapid succession a school 
teacher, a law student, a practicing attorney, and 
at the age of twenty-two a successful candidate 
for the office of states' attorney. Similarly, in 
almost every case, if the young voters of Illinois 
felt that the newcomer was a man of ability with 
good fighting spirit, they were not apt to trouble 
themselves overmuch about his antecedent his- 
tory. It was a rare opportunity for the aspiring 
young men, and they were not at all slow or timid 
in taking hold. 



EARLY ADDRESSES 

III 

WHAT preparation had Lincoln to justify his 
high ambition? That he should announce 
himself a candidate for the legislature at the early 
age of twenty-three seems almost audacious. 
Perhaps it appeared so to him, for he says near 
the conclusion of this address: ^'Considering the 
great degree of modesty which should always at- 
tend youth it is probable that I have already been 
more presuming than becomes me.'^ He had the 
unusual combination of much modesty with even 
greater courage. He said many years afterward 
that he had no rememberance of a man he was 
afraid of. But this seemingly new purpose: 
How old was it? We do not know. It probably 
dates back to his boyhood. Before he was ten 
years old, his own mother had stimulated his am- 
bition, saying, as reported, ''Study and learn all 
you can, Abe, make the most of yourself: You've 
just as good blood in your veins as Washington 
had." And in his address at Trenton in February, 
1861, he himself stated that away back in the 



1^ Lincoln Lessons for Today 

earliest days of his reading he was impressed by 
the story and example of revolutionary heroes. 
He was ever a dreamer, and his dreams began 
early. 

Of what was he dreaming when he borrowed 
books, any he could hear of, miles around, espe- 
cially those that related to American biography 
and history? How early did his hero worship 
begin? We know that the ambition of any normal 
boy is that he shall be hke his hero, and, in time 
achieve hke distinction. 

Of what was the lad dreaming when he bor- 
rowed from the owner, Esquire Turnham, ''The 
Statutes of Indiana?'^ How many boys were there 
think you, in Spencer and the adjoining counties, 
who would have choosen that book for close and 
thorough study? The book contained beside 
statutes, the Declaration of Independence, the 
Constitution of the United States, the Act of 
Virginia passed in 1783, by which the ''Territory 
North Westward of the river Ohio" was ceded to 
the United States, and the Ordinance of 1787, 
passed by Congress for governing the same terri- 
tory (a region now comprising many states). 
There was a clause in this Ordinance prohibiting 
slavery to which Lincoln referred many times in 
later years. 

Of what was the youth dreaming when he would 



Early Addresses IS 

walk fifteen miles or more to hear a noted speaker; 
when he crowded forward with others, barefooted 
as he was, to shake hands with a man like Brecken- 
ridge and tell him, ^^You made the best speech I 
ever heard"? When, thinking of it all, he walked 
rapidly homeward, ready to repeat the substance 
of the speech to any audience he could gather, 
imitating closely the style and action of the orator 
himself? 

Indiana and Illinois were neighbor states, with 
practically the same problems to meet of law and 
order, roads, bridges, and improvement of navi- 
gable streams. Think of the value of such a 
thorough study of the statutes of the older state 
for application to the conditions of the newer. 

Verily the dreams of the boy and youth were 
coming true. He was no mere upstart rushing in 
'^ where angels fear to tread." Not many of those 
who met at Vandalia in the year 1834 had received 
a better practical schooling, a more thorough 
preparation for the work to be done. Making 
few speeches, — none long — he worked, and made 
his mark distinctively on the history of the state. 
It was largely by his adroit management that the 
capitol was removed to Springfield, a consumma- 
tion of great value. 

So we may say that his first ^'address to the 
voters of Sangamon County" was fully justified 



IJf. Lincoln Lessons for Today 

by Lincoln's ability to meet the requirements of 
the office to which he aspired. Although, having 
been prevented from making the necessary can- 
vass, he was defeated, the ^'address'' was just as 
applicable two years later when he was elected. 
There was no word in it to erase or change. This 
was a characteristic of the addresses he was to 
make afterward, even to the last of his public 
utterances. 



EARLY ADDRESSES 



IV 



ON January 27th, 1837, Mr. Lincoln, then 
nearly 28 years old, delivered a speech before 
the young men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. 
The subject of the evening was, ^^The Perpetua- 
tion of our Political Institutions.'' 

I would that every student of Lincoln might 
have access to '^The Complete Works" and read 
the speech as a whole. First, he considers briefly 
our great inheritance, geographic and govern- 
mental; next he asks, wherein is our danger? It 
cannot come, he says, from abroad. ^^It must 
spring up amongst us. If destruction be our 
lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. 
As a nation of freemen we must Hve through all 
time or die by suicide." 

'^ If I am not over wary, there is even now some- 
thing of ill omen amongst us. I mean the in- 
creasing disregard for law which pervades the 
country — the growing disposition to substitute 
the wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober 
judgment of courts, and the worse than savage 



16 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

mobs for the executive ministers of justice. That 
it exists, though grating on our feeUngs to admit, 
it would be a violation of the truth to deny. Ac- 
counts of outrages committed by mobs form the 
every-day news of the times. They have per- 
vaded the country from New England to Loui- 



siana." 



After stating that the conditions are nation 
wide, he refers particularly to certain extreme 
cases in Mississippi where first gamblers were 
hung, then '^ negroes suspected of conspiring to 
raise an insurrection, then white men suspected 
of being in league with the negroes, and finally 
strangers from neighboring states going thither 
on business . . . thus went on the process of hang- 
ing till dead men were seen dangUng from boughs 
of trees on many a roadside." . . . Again he says: 
*'Turn to that horror-striking scene in St. Louis 
where a mulatto murderer was burned to death." 

Then he proceeds to enumerate the consequences 
if such things are allowed to continue. Speaking 
of the effect on the minds of men he says, "It 
goes on step by step till all the walls erected for the 
defence of persons and property are trodden down 
and disregarded. But all this is not the full ex- 
tent of the evil. By such examples . . . the per- 
petrators of the acts going unpunished . . . the 
lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless 



Early Addresses 17 

in practice, and having been used to no restraint 
but dread of punishment they thus become 
absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded 
government as their deadliest bane, they make a 
jubilee of the suspension of its operations, and pray 
for nothing so much as its total annihilation.'^ 

Could we find a better description of the spirit 
of the I. W. W. and the Bolshevism of our present 
day? 

Continuing he says: ^'Whenever this effect 
shall be produced among us, when the vicious por- 
tion of the population shall be permitted to 
gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and 
burn churches, ravage and rob, throw printing 
presses into rivers, shoot editors, hang and burn 
people obnoxious to themselves at pleasure and 
with impunity, depend on it, this government can- 
not last." 

This has remarkable force from the fact that 
soon after, November 7th of the same year, the 
Rev. Elisha P. Lovejoy, an abolitionist editor, 
was shot and killed after suffering the loss of three 
printing presses within twelve months, at Alton, 
Illinois. 



EARLY ADDRESSES 



CONSIDERING further in his Lyceum speech 
the danger to our political institutions, of a 
growing disregard of law, Lincoln asks, ^'How 
shall we fortify against it? — The answer is simple. 
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every 
well wisher of posterity swear by the blood of 
the Revolution never to violate in the least par- 
ticular the laws of the country, and never to toler- 
ate their violation by others. What the patriots 
of seventy-six did to support the Declaration of 
Independence, the Constitution and the laws, so 
let every American now pledge his Hfe, his property 
and his sacred honor — let every man remember 
that to violate the law is to trample on the blood 
of his father, and to tear the charter of his own 
and his children's hberty. Let reverence for the 
laws be breathed by every American mother to 
the babe that prattles in her lap; let it be taught 
in schools, seminaries and colleges ... let it be 
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative 
halls, and enforced in courts of justice." 



Early Addresses 19 

''Bad laws if they exist should be repealed as 
soon as possible; still, while they continue in 
force, for the sake of example they should be 
rehgiously observed." . . . 

''There is no grievance that is a fit object 

FOR redress by MOB LAW!" 

In this connection Lincoln had in mind par- 
ticularly the action of mobs upon the aboUtion- 
ists, at that time probably the worst hated people 
in the country. He states the issue clearly and 
logically in all such cases. "One of two positions 
is necessarily true — that is, the thing, (discussion 
of slavery) is right in itself, and therefore deserves 
protection, ... or it is wrong, and therefore de- 
serves to be prohibited by legal enactment; and 
in neither case is the interposition of mob law 
necessary, justifiable or excusable." 

His own view of this matter, the right to dis- 
cuss the question of slavery, (denied by the 
slave-holders and their followers) is shown clearly 
by the "protest" he wrote to be spread upon the 
journal of the State Legislature only thirty-six 
days later. It seems strange now that this body, 
lawgivers of a free state, should have been so 
over-awed by the dominating slave-power that, 
instead of condemning mob violence and giving 
protection to free speech within the borders of the 
state, they tacitly gave consent to such outrages. 



20 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

and passed a special resolution, condemning the 
abolitionists in toto. 

Only two members of the legislature protested 
against the passage of this resolution, and refused 
to vote for it. Their assertion that ^Hhe institu- 
tion of slavery is founded on both injustice and 
bad policy," seems now to be exceedingly mild, 
but it required a good deal of personal courage on 
the part of these two — Lincoln and Stone — to 
sign such a statement, and move that it be made 
a part of the permanent record. 

But Lincoln was determined that no expression 
regarding slavery should be passed unaccom- 
panied by the declaration that it was an evil. 
In his Lyceum speech a month before he had stood 
for the right of free speech in its discussion. It 
is noteworthy that when Lovejoy was murdered 
at Alton a few months later, not a newspaper in 
Springfield, and few in the state uttered a word of 
condemnation of the act, or invoked justice on the 
perpetrators. No wonder that Lincoln took a 
pessimistic view of the country's future, in face of 
such exhibitions of moral cowardice and shameful 
disregard of human rights ! At this time, when only 
28 years of age, he stood almost alone in his neighbor- 
hood for the principles of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and the reign of law. It was a long road 
that lay before him to the day of triumph in 186^. 



THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 

FIVE hundred and thirty words will pass for a 
short article in a newspaper. It is scanned 
by the reader usually in three minutes or less. 
Lincoln^s Gettysburg Address contains two hun- 
dred and sixty-five words, just half the number 
mentioned, and can be read deliberately in less 
than two minutes. And a man might read it 
every week for a year, and at the last have a 
thought brought to him that he had overlooked. 

The oration of Edward Everett, delivered just 
before Lincoln's short speech, consists of 20,000 
words and took nearly two hours of time. By 
some present it was pronounced one of the greatest 
intellectual efforts ever made. Probably not a 
score of persons could be found in the United 
States today who have ever read it completely 
through. 

Of the 265 words of Lincoln's address, 187 are 
of one syllable, and 52 have each two syllables; 
of the remaining sixteen, three are used twice, 
leaving thirteen in all to be accounted for. Four 
of these have four syllables each, and the remaining 
nine each have three. 



22 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

The thirteen words are '^altogether/' '* con- 
tinent," '^ consecrated," '^ consecrate," '* created," 
'^ dedicate," '' dedicated," '^ devotion," '^ govern- 
ment," '^hberty," '^ proposition," '' remaining," 
'^ unfinished." The three repeated are: 'Medi- 
cate," ''dedicated" and "devotion." 

If one were superstitious he might think to find 
significance in the beginning and ending of this 
list, placed in alphabetical order. "Altogether" 
is the first word, "dedicated" the middle, and 
"remaining," "consecrated" the two last. 

It will be noted that no shorter word can be 
substituted for one of those containing three or 
four syllables. 

Notwithstanding the acceptance of this address 
by all the English speaking world as one of the 
few greatest ever delivered, it has not been without 
its critics, who have found it full of faults according 
to their standards. They have called attention 
to the many repetitions of certain words. They 
have said that eleven repetitions of the word 
"that" was inexcusable in so short an address, in 
one place adjoining, — "that that," (as Lincoln him- 
self might have said, ' ' end to end ") . They thought 
he should have avoided the use of the plural pro- 
noun "we" nine times: of "here" five times, — 
twice in one sentence. They said it was impos- 
sible to consider this speech a master-composition. 



The Gettysburg Address 2S 

One thing is certain, Lincoln was totally un- 
aware that he was competing for a literary prize. 
He was only trying to put a great thought in few 
words that every hearer or reader should not fail 
to understand. 

Here is the test: add or subtract a word any- 
where, or substitute one word for another, make 
the speech by one word longer or shorter, without 
weakening the sentence involved and the speech 
as a whole. 

No critic could ever tamper with it, trying to 
improve it, without disappointing himself. Each 
word fits exactly, like a piece of perfect mosaic. 
That several of the pieces happen to be alike does 
not mar in the least the perfection of the work- 
manship. 

There is one small book that should be in every American 
home. It is called "Ideals of the Republic." It contains the 
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United 
States, Washington's two Inaugural Addresses and his Farewell 
Address, Lincoln's two Inaugural Addresses and the Gettysburg 
speech. — It is of good print, that any man may carry in his coat 
pocket for reading in spare moments. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 65c. 



THE WISE MEN NOT CONSULTED 

IN the selection of boys and their preparation for 
the making of great men, the Almighty seems 
to have paid little attention in times past to the 
rules of the schools or opinions of the learned. 

Suppose that about the year 1809 a convention 
had been called of those reputed to be wise, in the 
United States. Suppose it had been told these 
people, that, half a century thereafter a great 
emergency would come in the affairs of this coun- 
try; a crisis involving the very existence of the 
nation; that a great leader would be needed for 
this most critical time; that it was immediately 
necessary to seek out a proper child for the making 
of a man to meet that great occasion, and to see 
to it that he was rightly educated and prepared. 
What would they have done about it? 

Of course the first thing would have been to 
appoint a committee of chief educators with power 
to act. These would have proceeded to find a 
comely Hannah with a promising Samuel — by 
competitive examination, possibly. They would 
have said that, of course, the child should come of 



The Wise Men Not Consulted 25 

good stock, one of the first families of the land; 
that he must be educated with great care, by the 
most celebrated tutors, that his conduct should 
be governed by strict regulations. In order that 
his manners or morals might not be corrupted he 
should be allowed to move only in the best society, 
and have no ^' common^' associations. They 
would have said, ^'Let us show the world what 
proper selection and right training will develop. 
When the occasion comes, we will have the man.'^ 
But the Almighty found a poor boy in a pioneer 
cabin among the white-oak hills. His feet were 
bare and his garments homespun. His books 
were few, his mother almost his only teacher. 
He had — 

" Free growth among the wild flowers, plants and trees, 
Music of bird and brook," 

swimming and hunting and fishing, or gathering 
chips to build his mother's fire, till he was old 
enough to swing the ax of a pioneer woodsman. 

With hard labor and coarse fare, his frame 
grew tall and strong, fitted to bear great burdens. 
He sat by the fireside of the humble, and hved 
their Ufe until his sympathies were close to all 
manldnd. Struggling ever with adverse circum- 
stance, he grew no foolish pride or false ambition. 
He was taught to depend, not on the shallow 



£6 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

knowledge of a multitude of things, but rather on 
the power and value of fundamental truths. 

No golden coins of knowledge came to him 
fresh minted from the schools; he had to dig the 
metal for himself in the mines of experience and 
close reading, separate the dross and weigh the 
product in his thought. He was strictly taught 
from earliest years that simple honesty, with 
loving kindness and sincerity, should be his rule 
of conduct: That he must never compromise 
with wrong, or forget the God Who made him. 

And so, with a clean heredity of God's own 
choosing, a manner of training that accorded with 
His plan, the man was made to meet the hour. 



SUPER-GREAT LEADERS 

IN America we have had two, one for the 18th, 
one for the 19th century. Any intelHgent 
schoolboy can name them at once. In personahty 
very different, each of these leaders in his own 
way, fitting the circumstances of his time, at- 
tained the height of super-greatness. Each had 
an overmastering conscience, absolute honesty, 
love of truth for its own sake, perfect courage, 
indomitable will, the self-sacrificing spirit, pa- 
tience of endurance, supreme love of country, and 
with all an unfaltering faith in Divine control and 
guidance. With this combination of qualities, 
each was able to go forward, amid the greatest 
difficulties, and never make a blunder. 

Why is it that the man considered great, will 
almost certainly blunder at some critical moment 
of his public life, it may be just once, so preventing 
himself from attaining the highest niche of fame? 
Somewhere in the chain of character is a weak 
hnk, that bends or breaks under stress. 

Wherein is the difference of mistake and 
blunder? Any great man will make mistakes 
necessarily, because he cannot know all the facts 




^8 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

in relation to his problem. But he may reason 
accurately upon the facts understood. Whenever 
he fails to act in accordance with known truth, 
whenever he is swerved or turned from the 
straight path by some consideration of the ego, 
he makes the blunder, since he is not able to elim- 
inate self from the question he is called upon to 
decide. There is usually an impulse of fear that 
some harm may react upon himself by the pur- 
suance of a given course; that it may interfere 
with some desire or ambition of his own. Being 
tempted, he yields a httle in the application of a 
fixed principle, and blunders. He makes a false 
move when he knows or should know better. 
Remember, we are speaking of the truly great 
man, who is capable of correct reasoning. Of 
course, the man who is not big enough for his job 
cannot help blundering unless he is guided b}^ 
another. 

The moment a man in high position loses sight 
of the fact that he should be purely a servant of 
the people, of truth, and of righteousness, and al- 
lows self to enter the field of vision, he cannot see 
clearly, and becomes an unsafe leader. 

Why did Napoleon make the blunder of a winter 
campaign against Russia? It was a plain viola- 
tion of reason and common sense. It seems not 
to have occurred to his mind that a few sparks of 



Supper-Great Leaders 29 

fire might destro}^ the city of refuge. No one may 
question his greatness, but he was evidently 
blinded by inordinate personal ambition. This 
made him ready to sacrifice without limit the Uves 
of others, in order that he might rise yet higher in 
power, even to the supreme control of Europe. 

Being selfish, inconsiderate of the rights of 
others, he blundered, where Washington or Lin- 
coln would have retained a balance of mind and 
purpose. They in his position would have sought 
the harmony and peace of Europe, with justice 
for all peoples. 



NOT MANY EQUALS IN HISTORY 

IN the time of Washington there were a number 
of men who considered themselves, and were 
thought by others to be, equal or superior to him. 
But with hardly an exception those who lived to 
see his work completed came to acknowledge his 
supremacy in the creation of this government. A 
similar statement holds good with reference to 
Lincoln. There were very few, North or South, 
who, within a few years following his death would 
have denied him the place of supreme distinction 
in the work of preserving the Union. 

Even the Secretary of State, who at one time 
had thought himself far greater; and that he 
should be ''the power behind the throne," came to 
say: ''He was easily the leader of us all." 

There were a number of great men, statesmen 
and leaders before Lincoln's day, and others con- 
temporaneous with him, but not one who pos- 
sessed so perfectly as he that combination of all 
the necessary qualities to make him supremely 
great. 

Have we had one since? Few I think would 
answer yes. One or two have been considered. 



Not Many Equals in History SI 

but however great they were it seems to the writer 
that they did not possess the poise and balance 
of mind, the freedom from selfness and personal 
bias, possessed by Lincoln and Washington. 
Indeed there have been a number of quiet men in 
the presidency, nothing striking or spectacular 
about them, who were better balanced, more 
reliable of judgment than the recent popular 
idols — elected or non-elected. 

Whom have we in European history to rank 
with our two super-great? There have been in 
England a number no doubt, who came near but 
hardly quite to the mark. The intelligent Briton 
will acknowledge that he has to go back a thou- 
sand years to find the only one to whom is ac- 
corded the title ^^ Great.'' Their one sacred name 
is Alfred. In Holland we find one, four hundred 
years ago, quaUfied beyond question. WilUam of 
Orange had equal wisdom and abihty, a supreme 
love that overmastered every selfish motive or 
consideration; and he too gave ^Hhe last full 
measure of devotion," as did Lincoln. For he 
also was assassinated by the hand of his enemies. 
And no greater tribute was ever given to a man 
than this: '^when he died the children of 



HOLLAND CRIED IN THE STREETS.'' 



32 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Do we find another in Europe? 

The writer does not consider himself quahfied 
to answer this question. Undoubtedly the people 
of several nations might lay claim to one or more 
each, but would the candidates bear measurement 
from every point of view? A number of historians 
have been asked for an opinion. One has suggested 
Admiral Cohgny of France, or Mazzini of Italy. 
And Asia? We are only sure of one, whom any 
bibUcal student will instantly name. There is 
none of any other race to consider than this leader 
of Israel. Do we find Lincoln's equal elsewhere? 
At least in one great leader of Israel that any 
bibUcal student will instantly name. 

We have scant knowledge of the life and per- 
sonahty of Moses, comparing him with those who 
lived within the time of printed records. But 
without doubt he had the same super-qualities of 
leadership, making due allowance for the time in 
which he hved. First, he killed a man who was 
oppressing one of his people. Then he fled to 
save his life. He seems to have been utterly dis- 
trustful of himself after that, brooding with his 
conscience forty years. It took a miracle to drive 
him back to the work laid out for him, and mir- 
acles to sustain him afterward. But he performed 
the most difficult task perhaps ever given to a 
man in this world. He saved a nation from its 



Not Many Equals in History 33 

enemies — and from itself. He set going on the 
earth an energizing force of inconceivable power. 

He appears to have had an all absorbing love 
for his people, with complete self-surrender. 
When his work was done he would not even be 
present at his own funeral. He would not allow 
his bones to be made the object of superstitious 
veneration. He went off and died by himself — 
''And no man knoweth his grave to this day." 

Had they known, a foolish people would have 
made the place another Mecca of idolatrous pil- 
grimage and worship. 

No doubt the Almighty has had his thousands 
— men and women — quahfied of heart and soul 
to be among the super-great;^ but only a few stand 
out to human vision. 



WHO WAS LINCOLN'S BEST FRIEND? 

IN order to answer this question it is necessary to 
relate briefly one of the stories of the Civil War. 

More than half the people of the Border States 
were loyal to the Union. A majority of these 
had been opposed to Lincoln politically; they 
had been in a way pro-slavery; many even were 
slave-holders. The greatest internal diplomatic 
problem of the administration was to keep these 
people solid for the Union, and to prevent their 
respective States from being dragged bodily into 
the Southern Confederacy. It required the 
leadership of a very wise and patient man to ac- 
complish this task. No matter what he did he 
would arouse more or less opposition, and make 
for himself enemies. 

In all the border states except one, the lines 
were clearly drawn between the two parties of 
Union and Secession; there were practically no 
sub-factions. The exceptional state was Mis- 
souri. That state had never been — is not to this 
day, homogeneous. It had the misfortune to 
come into the Union as a slave state under terms 
of the '^ Missouri Compromise." Looking at the 



Who Was Lincoln^ s Best Friend? 35 

map you discover that it was almost surrounded 
by free states or territories; East by Illinois, 
North by Iowa, West by Kansas and Nebraska. 

The slave-holding element was dominant in the 
river counties, with exception of a strong union 
element in St. Louis. Northward, settlers came 
chiefly from free states. Most of these were bit- 
terly pro-Union. In other parts were conservative 
Unionists, and everywhere a floating, irrespon- 
sible class, who engaged in irregular warfare and 
robbery, a disgrace to the cause they ostensibly 
favored. The conservative and radical Unionists 
could never agree upon anything either of local 
or national policy. 

Under the impulsive leading of General Fre- 
mont, who was both impractical and insubordi- 
nate, the radicals of Missouri were stirred almost to 
a state of frenzy. Unfortunately a large element 
of Lincoln's own party in the North sympathized 
with them, blaming him chiefly for the discord 
and violence prevalent throughout the state. 
Lincoln beheved that to yield to their dictation 
would lose to him the other border states, if not 
Missouri itself. Trying to pacify the various 
elements, Mr. Lincoln appointed General Scho- 
field commandant of the Southwest department, 
a man of good judgment as he believed. But the 
radicals of Missouri were bitterly dissatisfied. 



86 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

They wanted Fremont again or some one like him. 
They sent a committee of seventy to Washington 
to interview the President and to demand per- 
emptorily the removal of Schofield, and a com- 
plete change of pohcy. The committee was ac- 
claimed all over the North, feted and dined all 
along the route, and in Washington itself. The 
spokesman told Lincoln to his face that blood 
would be upon his head for the dire consequences 
that would follow his refusal of their demands. 

They said bitter things that cut him to the 
heart, and tears coursed the wrinkles of his care- 
worn cheeks. 

He explained his position to them, calmly, 
kindly, but would not yield to their demands; 
though he knew the whole North would be aflame 
on the morrow with denunciation of his course. 

He concluded with this statement: 

"You gentlemen must remember that in per- 
forming the duties of the office I hold, I must rep- 
resent no one section of the Union, but all, in trying 
to maintain the supremacy of the government. 

"I desire to so conduct the affairs of this ad- 
ministration that if, at the end, when I come to 
lay down the reins of power, I have lost every 
other friend on earth, I shall have at least one 
friend left, and that friend shall be the one 

DOWN INSIDE OF ME.^^ 



HIS CONSCIENCE 

WHO but Lincoln would have thought of 
expressing conscience in such homely fash- 
ion and so effectively? — ^^The friend that is down 
inside of me." 

Though he lost every other friend on earth, he 
meant to keep that one to the end. 

Lincoln was pre-eminently a friendly man, and 
possessed an unusual aptitude for making friends : 
and no one appreciated more than he the approval 
and confidence of his friends, but of all friendships 
the one he prized most was that of ^Hhe friend 
down inside" — his Conscience. 

The story is told that shortly after he became 
president, Mrs. Lincoln brought to him a current 
report that Seward was the power behind the 
throne. He replied emphatically: '^I may not 
rule myself, but certainly Seward shall not rule 
me. The only ruler is my conscience — following 
God in it — those men will have to learn that yet." 

Attention! Boys and girls, young men and 
maidens, at home, in school, in employment. 
Attention, too, employers, parents and teachers. 
How many are ready to give wholeheartedly as 



38 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Lincoln did the first place of friendship to Con- 
science, 'Hhe friend that is down inside" of you? 

Do you believe truly that conscience — truth, 
honesty — can be depended on and will not fail 
to win the greatest self-respect, the highest satis- 
faction and success? 

When others, claiming to be friends, or our own 
desires, appeal to us to do this or that, are we not 
often tempted to say to the inside friend: '^Keep 
still, we want no interference from you?" 

By listening to and obeying this inside friend 
Lincoln lost for a time many friends — or followers. 
He made for a while bitter enemies. But in the 
end he bound to himself all friends worth having, 
and today he holds the faith and confidence of 
mankind and will hold it while words are printed 
and people read in any language. 

Suppose that he had yielded to those clamoring 
other '^ friends" and done as they wished, instead 
of following strictly the advice of conscience, or 
suppose he had once permitted a spirit of selfish- 
ness or of doubtful poUcy to rule his actions, where 
would he now stand by comparison? 

A great element of his strength lay in his hu- 
miUty. He had little faith in human nature that 
was not held close to the divine. He said once: 
^^I have always regarded Peter as sincere when 
he said he would never deny his Master. Yet he 



His Conscience 39 

did deny him. Now I think I shall keep my word 
and maintain the stand I have taken; but I must 
remember that I am liable to infirmity, and may 
fall." 

But Lincoln had behind him what Peter did not 
have, the life-long habit of standing firm, obeying 
under all circumstances the voice of that friend 
inside. 



HIS HEREDITY 

WHENCE came those qualities of mind and 
heart that made him super-great, that 
caused this spring of world-wide influence to flow? 
Not from inoculation, the special food he ate, 
the kind of house he lived in, or from the clothes 
he wore. He had them by inheritance. No river 
can rise higher than its source or escape the waters 
flowing into it. The lower Mississippi represents 
two parent streams of very different color. Each 
one is fed by innumerable tributaries. So it is 
with heredity. Tell us quickly, reader, how many 
great-great-grandparents have you? Who were 
they all? Tell us about them, where they lived 
and what they did. Come nearer, one generation, 
how much do you know? 

We know the stream we navigate but not its 
many sources. We know the man, or think we 
do; yet never entirely, with his deeper, hidden 
currents. His parents as a rule we do not know, 
or but imperfectly. It is not their fault nor his, 
and may be our misfortune. There is one truth, 
however, beyond question, the man but repre- 
sents the traits that flowed into him through them. 



His Heredity J^l 

Essentially their qualities and those of their 
forebears are his in a new combination. They are 
not new-created, but continued. 

As in a stream, new channels may be opened 
for the waters, a pressure given this way or that, 
and new uses made of its power; so in the individ- 
ual we have hereditary force, plus training and 
direction. 

Assuming that beyond all this there may be 
given to the man to manifest on earth a quality 
divine, some higher force of the Universal Spirit, 
even then his own receptiveness depends upon the 
preparation of his being by inheritance. 

Of course it is a mystery. ^' Why," we ask, ^^are 
children of the same heredity so different in ap- 
pearance and mentality?" We cannot tell. The 
waters of the stream have come from many 
sources, and apparently cannot mingle twice in 
the same proportions. 

Here is a truth that is usually forgotten in the 
study of a man's heredity: that primary and 
essential traits of character are not to be measured 
by external circumstances, — amount and kind of 
one's possessions, place of residence or surround- 
ings; neither by education in the common use 
of the term, i.e, schooling or book knowledge. 
They are manifested in small affairs rather than 
great; in the simplest relations of home, between 



42 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

parents and children, brothers and sisters; in 
common neighborUness, ordinary labor, business 
and service. Yet, strangely enough, people per- 
sist continually in appraising character by circum- 
stances, one's vocation and the mere possession 
of things. They are inclined to judge harshly of 
those who fail to achieve success according to 
their standards of success, even when they know 
little or nothing of the conditions under which the 
person struggled whom they judge. 

How very foolish were some of the first bi- 
ographers of Lincoln, and others who followed, 
copying without thought their ignorant state- 
ments regarding his heredity. They knew little 
or nothing about the matter, but, feeling that they 
must say something chose to say things disparag- 
ing. Apparently they thought to make their 
subject seem the greater by belittling those to 
whom he owed his being. Time, with careful 
investigation is sweeping to the rubbish heap each 
unworthy theory and statement of Herndon and 
his imitators. 

So far, in every stream of Lincoln's ancestry, 
we find the waters clear and sweet, as if they flowed 
direct from mountain springs. We have not dis- 
covered one progenitor unworthy, measured by 
true standards, — steadfast courage, honesty and 
purity. 



WAS HE AN EDUCATED MAN? 

MOST people, if asked about Lincoln's educa- 
tion would say probably, that he had very 
little. What they would have in mind would be 
the instruction of schools, which is only a minor 
part of training. 

We may sum up the definitions given of educa- 
tion by a number of dictionaries with this state- 
ment: THAT COURSE OF TRAINING, PHYSICAL, 
MENTAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS, WHICH FITS THE 
INDIVIDUAL FOR THE WORK BEFORE HIM IN LIFE, 
AND FOR THE GREATEST USEFULNESS. 

In detail, education cannot be the same for any 
two people, by reason of differing capacities and 
requirements. It is on the whole an individual 
matter, the result desired being the fitting in of a 
man to his best place. 

How can we determine the value of a man's 
educatior except by the outcome of his life? 

With regard to Abraham Lincoln, it is conceded 
that he was one of the very few super-great men 
of history. By what cause? First, of course, 
natural endowment. Second, education, i.e. the 
training that drew out his natural powers. Now 
the question is: What could have been added to 



I^ Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Lincoln^s education that would have made him 
greater than he was? Are we sure that we could 
suggest one thing in the way of schooling that 
would have increased his usefulness? His Hfe was 
full. Could anything have been added without 
subtracting something of possibly greater value? 
What experience of Lincoln's life should have been 
left out of the educational scheme, — for him? 

Here is a man upon the highest mountain peak 
of fame, with few for company. Each of those 
cUmbed by his own path, providentially deter- 
mined. Who shall say that one of them should 
have deviated from the trail? Each had his own 
education, physical, mental, moral and religious, 
that fitted him for the work that lay before him 
and the greatest usefulness. 

PHYSICAL education: work and play 

^'When I was eight years old, being large for 
my age, an ax was put into my hand, and from 
that till within my twenty- third year I was almost 
constantly handling that most useful instrument; 
less of course in plowing and harvesting seasons." 
(Lincoln's Autobiography.) 

Twelve growing years, of toilsome labor full; 

A towering stalwart form; 
Of fibre knit like ironwood or oak. 

To battle with the storm. 



Was He an Educated Man? 4^ 

Sometimes a holiday. We see an original Boy 
Scout, walking with one or more companions over 
the hills, eighteen miles, to the Ohio River, sleep- 
ing on the ground, boating, fishing, taking home a 
goodly string hung over his shoulder. Near home, 
there was the creek and swimming-pool. He and his 
boy friends had all the essentials of a gymnasium. 
There was ground, plenty of it, and no signs, ^'Keep 
off the grass." There was the original horizontal 
bar — an extending limb of a tree, just high enough 
to reach with a standing jump ; the swinging-bar, 
— a grapevine somewhere hanging down ; the best 
cUmbing posts in the world, — smooth-bark hickorys 
or poplars, fifteen or twenty feet without a limb. 

They had wrestHng, running and jumping 
matches, played town ball and ^ Equates" (quoits). 
They had a lot of fun, those boys; they could 
work when they worked and play when they 
played, and shout and sing and laugh without 
disturbance to their neighbors. All grew up with 
physical strength and power of endurance, Abra- 
ham most of all. 

Don't ever waste your sympathies, my young 
gentleman or lady, pitying the boy who works in 
field or shop, or the girl who helps her mother in 
the house or garden — or her father in the field. 
Given beside some opportunity for play the work 
is made half play. If you have pity to spare, give 



45 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

it to the boy or girl who doesn't have to work; 
if you have scorn, bestow it on the lazy. 

Hard work, in reasonable amount, has no small 
value aside from physical development. It car- 
ries with it and increases self-respect, the sense of 
usefulness, the pride of accomplishment. The boy 
who follows the furrow has time for thinldng. The 
while you see him in the field, walking barefoot 
behind his team, his mind may be engaged di- 
gesting the book he read last night. While de- 
veloping his body he may be also exercising a 
brain that will some day make him a leader of men. 

With all his work Lincoln never forgot how to 
play. When he had become a distinguished lawyer 
and statesman, after he had been in Congress, he 
played ball with the young men and boys. He 
often took a Saturday afternoon off, going to the 
woods followed by a troop of children who would 
do as he had done when young, run and explore, 
climb trees, gather nuts, and study the habits of 
animals and birds. 

During the war, even, when he was borne down 
by anxiety and care, it is told that, out at the 
country place of Mr. Blair he joined the boys in a 
game of ball and ran the bases, laughing and 
shouting with the rest. 

He could not have been the man he was without 
the education of work — and play. 



EDUCATION OF PATRIOTISM 

TOVE of country was among the first things 
JL-/ taught to Abraham. He tells the story that 
when he was very small, one day upon the road 
he met a man who told him he had been a soldier. 
'^Immediately," he says, ''I gave him whatever I 
had in my hand, a piece of bread perhaps, because 
I had been taught by my parents to honor the 
defenders of my country." They did not fail to 
tell him, we may be sure, that he was named for 
his grandfather Abraham — killed by the Indians, 
when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. 
This grandfather had come with Daniel Boone, 
his friend, or closely following him, to explore 
Kentucky just before the close of the Revolution- 
ary War. He had been a Captain of militia in 
Rockingham County, Virginia, as records show. 
His brother Jacob was a Lieutenant, present at 
the surrender of CornwalUs. This Abraham had 
been named for his uncle, a man distinguished in 
Pennsylvania, Abraham Lincoln of Berks County. 
An interesting account of him is given in the his- 
tory of that County, with a reproduction of his 
signature. It resembles strikingly that of the 



J^S Lincoln Lessons for Today 

president. He was a member of the Legislature, 
the State Constitutional Convention and of the 
Convention that ratified the Constitution of the 
United States. 

Had our Abraham's grandfather lived to old 
age he might have told his son and grandson many 
stories that were buried with him in the forest. 
Dennis tells that he asked the mother what the 
baby's name would be. ^'Abraham of course/' 
she answered, ^^for his grandfather, who was 
killed by the Indians. He was a mighty smart 
man and not afraid of anything." This descrip- 
tion is not ill-fitting to his grandson. 

The pioneers had almost no records of their 
ancestry but all they had of legendary lore they 
told to Abraham, of brave and patriotic forefathers 
and mothers. And the first books that Abraham 
read besides the Bible were of patriotism. As 
elsewhere noted in this volume, nearly fifty years 
later Lincoln told the senators of the New Jersey 
legislature: '^Away back in my childhood the 
earhest days of my being able to read, I got hold 
of Weems' ^'Life of Washington" . . . and / re- 
memher, the accounts there given of the battle- 
fields and struggles for the liberties of the .coun- 
try. I recollect thinking, then, boy though I was, 
that there must have been something more than 
common that these men struggled for." 



Education of Patriotism 49 

Aye, 'Hhe thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts," Lincoln would not have been the man 
he was without his early education of 'patriotism. 

EDUCATION OF TOOLS 

A man was famous according as he had lifted 
up axes upon the thick trees. — Psalm 74-5. 

^^That most useful instrument,'' Lincoln wrote 
in his Autobiography. Yes, and most educational 
has been the Ax. There was never its equal 
among tools for a complete exerciser of the body, 
the physical development of a man. It can be of 
any size, from that of a giant to the hatchet for a 
child. As Abraham grew so did the ax he used, 
until with the swing of his long arms the tree was 
down before another lad would be half through. 
Without the ax there would have been no Lincoln 
as we know him, no '^ Rail-splitter" to lead his 
party. His father had ^Hhe best set of tools in the 
county," it was said, and Abraham learned their 
use. The pioneer did most of his own black- 
smithing and repairing, sometimes making plows 
and harrows. Hence it was that Lincoln when in 
doubt later as to what he should do, 'thought of 
being a blacksmith," as he states.* They made 

*In Tarbell's "Life of Lincoln," Vol. I, there is a picture of a 
walnut cabinet, made by Abraham — "well put together," pos- 
sessed, about 1895 by J. W. Wartmain, Evansville, Ind. 



60 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

also common furniture, spinning-wheels and looms, 
— coffins many, cutting boards from the log with 
whipsaws before there were sawmills near. He 
was taught to be resourceful, meeting every acci- 
dent or emergency without thought of failure. 
When later, on the Sangamon, the flatboat stuck 
upon a dam, he contrived an apparatus for lifting 
it over. He had his invention patented, the model 
of which may still be seen. No doubt he dreamed 
that he should make some money from it, not 
knowing how soon railroads would be built, and 
do away with transportation on small streams. 
As evidence of Abraham's mechanical skill and 
accuracy, consider that after the store '' winked 
out'' he ^'procured a compass and chain, studied 
Flint and Gibson (on surveying) a little, and went 
at it." ''This procured bread and kept body and 
soul together," for some months, till he was 
elected to the legislature. His surveys are on 
record and have never been in question. 

During the war he studied closely the mechanism 
of firearms, making himself an expert on the sub- 
ject and became capable of criticizing new inven- 
tions offered to the War Department. 

Yes, Lincoln could not have been the man he 
was without the education of tools, in popular 
phrase, ''Manual Training." 



EDUCATION BY EXCLUSION 

THE doctors have a method of diagnosis, as they 
tell us, ^ ' by exclusion . ' ' The condition present 
may arise, we will say, from one of ten causes. 
Selecting one, they find that there is a conclusive 
reason why it does not apply to the case in hand. 
It is therefore discarded, leaving nine; and so 
the process continues till only one is left, which 
must be the one. If there has been no fault of 
listing or of elimination, the conclusion is as sure 
as that two and two make four. 

Ten thousand worlds there are within this world 
we tread, each with a million facts and questions. 
One can master but a few. 

In education the human tendency seems to be 
to consider only inclusion. But exclusion, — deter- 
mining what not to learn, is quite as important. 

In the education of young Lincoln the Almighty 
saw to it that he was not compelled to learn a lot 
of things unrelated to the work that lay before 
him. He had some clear ideas himself about ex- 
clusion, as the following letter indicates : 



52 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Nov. 11, 1863. 
Hon. Secretary of War: 

Dear Sir: 

I personally wish Jacob Freese, of New Jersey, to be ap- 
pointed Colonel for a colored regiment, and this regardless of 
whether he can tell the exact shade of Julius Caesar's bail-. 

Lincoln knew colored men, and the sort of manage- 
ment needed to make soldiers of them. He knew 
Freese, and thought him fit for the job. That was 
enough. What was the use of putting him through 
an examination on a lot of subjects taught in books 
or schools? 

We have had a president since Lincoln who had 
a wide range of knowledge on very many subjects 
and there was no limit to his writing or speech. 
He was, therefore, necessarily hurried, and some- 
times inaccurate. With a lot of exclusion, and 
more intensive inclusion, we hazard the statement 
that although he was great he might have been 
greater; and almost certainly he would have 
lived longer. 

A magnate of the great steel industry was sit- 
ting in a dental chair in a Chicago office. Looking 
out, he saw near by a big sign, ''business col- 
lege!" He snorted, then expressed his mind: 
''IVe tried them out — their graduates, '^ he said, 
*'in our ofl&ce we have wasted a lot of time unlearn- 
ing them of what they got there, and trying to 
teach them what they ought to know. Not one 



Education by Exclusion 68 

has made a success with us. 1^11 take the green 
boy every time, whose mind has not been clogged 
by a lot of misfitting ideas. Their system may be 
of value for some kinds of business, but not for 



ours." 



A certain biographer has had almost hysteria 
over the fact that Abraham was unable to attend 
the school of Robert Dale Owen and his associates 
at New Harmony, Indiana, mourning for his lost 
opportunity of an education. Lincoln told Leon- 
ard Swett the reason as they were riding together 
in a buggy on ^Hhe circuit.'' His father, with 
true Lincolnian simplicity as regards business 
matters, had signed a note with a neighbor and 
in the end had it to pay. Abraham gave up 
going to school and worked out for a money wage 
to assist in paying this debt. He told the story 
cheerfully, with no expression of regret, for he 
had come later to have little respect for the 
school. While he was working for Crawford and 
others he v/as not filling his mind with matter to 
be unlearned afterward. 

No, Lincoln would not have been the man he 
was without the blessing of exclusion in his early 
days. 



HE WENT TO SCHOOI^TO HIMSELF 

NOT an educated man? No schooling? He 
went to school continually. He had many 
teachers. He found them everywhere, men, 
women and children with whom he associated 
on equal terms, being humble and willing to 
learn from the very least of them. Best of all 
he went to school to himself. He grew up with 
his teacher, and no teacher was ever more exacting. 
Having only one pupil who was ever in hand, he 
could exercise discipHne as severely as he chose. 
The pupil could never play hooky, or shirk his 
task without the teacher knowing it. And the 
teacher was so honest he would not allow the 
pupil the least self-indulgence that would inter- 
fere with his true education. He was from the 
first determined to make a man of him. And the 
pupil's mother had told him many times: ^^Abe, 
learn all you can. Make a man of yourself. '' 
Once she said: ^'YouVe just as good blood in 
your veins as Washington had, and you can rise 
in the world as he did." The reporter says: ^'I 
thought she was stretchin' it some." But she was 
not. 



He Went to School — to Himself 55 

Very early this teacher, Himself, laid down 
certain rules. The first was: '^Whatever you do, 
do thoroughly." ^'If a book is not worth studying 
thoroughly it is not worth reading at all. What- 
ever subject you begin with, master it completely 
before you quit." And so it came to pass that in 
his later life the pupil wrote: ''I am never satis- 
fied when I am handling a thought till I have 
bounded it north — and south — and east — and 
west." In other words, he went all around it to 
see where it connected; and then when he used it 
he would make no mistake in statement or argu- 
ment. This rule of the teacher, ^'Be thorough," 
made him careful, determined to get at the exact 
truth of a matter, to be satisfied with nothing less : 
then, with every step he took he was on safe 
ground. 

Under this rule, the pupil developed his mind 
just as he did his body, by steady, continued 
application. 

With only a few books, the teacher was able to 
give his pupil the fundamentals, the foundation 
of a thorough education, i.e., the training which 
''fitted him for the work before him in life, and the 
greatest usefulness." 

Now this rule of Lincoln^s teacher, thorough- 
ness, is the one that any boy or girl must learn 
and follow if he or she is going to acquire an edu- 



56 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

cation worth while. Above all things the teacher 
and pupil being one, it means self-control. That 
was the most valuable asset, probably, that 
Lincoln acquired in going to school to Himself. 

Lincoln learned that he should not speak or 
act on mere impulse: that before doing things he 
should have thought out what the results of doing 
might be; or what effect the word spoken might 
have. 



Q 



HE SPECIALIZED 

UITE unconsciously at first, in going to 
school to himself, Lincoln specialized in his 
education. Both by choice and necessity he was 
narrowed down to the two great subjects most 
important for 'Hhe work that lay before him in 
life.'' He could hardly have branched off on 
other lines if so inchned. He had no books on 
Ichthyology, ornithology, or entomology, and could 
not have chosen to devote his life to the study of 
beetle-wings or the habits of toads. 
/ So the first subject that seems to have engrossed 

/ his attention was one he could study chiefly with- 

' 

out books. That was human nature. From the 
very start he seems to have taken deep interest 
in People. He just loved folks, folks of all sorts 
who were decent. He had much faith in them, 
too. There were only a few that he looked upon 
with suspicion, and toward none did he have hate 
or ill feeling. In this he was like his parents, who 
were neighbor-loving folk. All the people the boy 
knew were of the '^common" sort. They were 
not poverty stricken, like some in cities, not in 
actual want, not starving, but in very moderate 



68 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

circumstances. They owned their homes for the 
most part, had some land, with the bare necessi- 
ties of life, few if any luxuries. And the most im- 
portant part of Abraham's education was in the 
study of these people — their thoughts, their emo- 
tions and motives. Later, he said, he thought 
God must love the common people most, He had 
made so many of them. And all through Hfe there 
was continued the study of this special subject. 
Practically all the books he ever read had a bearing 
directly upon this. Why read Shakespeare? Be- 
cause he was the greatest specialist on human 
nature, his Works the greatest text book, aside 
from the Bible, on that subject. Therefore Abra- 
ham the teacher, chose for Abraham, the pupil, 
these two volumes that should be always at hand, 
on table or desk. There were many other books, 
of course, and periodicals, but all were subsidiary 
to these, contributory to the same education, 
bearing on the specialty. And there was no 
limit to the term of school, no vacations. 



HIS SECOND SPECIAL COURSE 

THE second special course of Lincoln's educa- 
tion, was that of The Political History of the 
United States, This study began, according to his 
own testimony, very early — '^away back in my 
childhood, the earliest days of my being able to 
read." He had begun, even then, to go to school 
to himself with the aid of printed teachers. 
Weems' ^'Life of Washington" was his ^* Primer" 
and '^ First Reader." This course of study con- 
tinued without intermission to the day of his 
death. 

It fitted in so closely with the course on human 
nature, that one could scarcely find a fine dividing 
them. As he came to know more and more people, 
from the pent-in forest homes of Kentucky and 
Indiana forth to the wide sweep of western 
prairies, there grew within his mind the larger 
vision of his country. Those with whom he formed 
acquaintance in neighborhood life or on the Cir- 
cuit, court-room or legislative hall, increasing 
audiences upon the field in great campaigns; — 
these all became to him the types of people every- 
where, his fellow citizens of the Union, These 



60 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

common people were to him as brethren who with 
their forefathers, pioneers of progress, had built 
the nation. Upon their patriotism, strength and 
courage, the perpetuity of our Government must 
depend. By this thinking there developed in his 
soul an ever deepening sense of the oneness and 
indivisibility of his country, a passionate love for 
it as a whole. 

We have no record that he ever read through a 
history of the United States or pursued a syste- 
matic course marked out by anybody. He took 
his own course, as expressed by himself with 
reference to the law: ''I studied with nobody. ^^ 

And so, going to school to himself in United 
States History, he did as the teacher wished. As 
any child should, he began with biography, choos- 
ing that of the greatest Revolutionary hero. Ere- 
long he got hold of the chief pubHc documents, 
the Constitution, and the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence; reading and re-reading, pondering, till 
he almost knew them by heart. Later on, he read 
every notable speech by political leaders, and the 
debates in Congress on important questions. 
In this manner he stored his mind with facts, 
especially those bearing upon issues of his own 
time, in order that when he should speak it would 
be with certainty and authority. His question 
ever was, '^What is the truth?'' 



His Second Special Course 61 

He studied the structure of our Government as 
he would a building, till he knew its every bolt and 
beam, rock foundation and capstone. This, with 
his knowledge of citizenship, learned first hand 
in the manner described, made him invincible in 
argument. 

His life experiences, all he read and learned, 
became contributory to this great scheme of 
speciaUzed education. For all the limitations of 
his early life there v/as given full compensation in 
character, moral fibre, power of endurance, pa- 
tience, and the indomitable will to overcome diffi- 
culties. — And httle had he to unlearn. 



WHY HE STUDIED EUCLID 

SPEAKING of himself, Lincoln says: ''He 
studied and nearly mastered the six books of 
Euclid, since he was a member of congress.'^ 

His term in congress ended March 4th, 1849, 
three weeks past his fortieth birthday. So he was 
still going to school to Himself. 

The work was done chiefly on his father's farm 
where he went for a stay of two or three months 
for that purpose. He could not very well do it in 
his law office or at home, because he needed soli- 
tude, a place for the utmost concentration of 
thought. To do this he had to let the law practice 
go, leaving it with the junior partner. He would 
not have done this so late in Ufe, after being in 
congress, unless he had considered the study of 
Euclid a matter of considerable importance. 

Where is the record of any other man doing the 
hke? The explanation is that he looked upon it 
as a valuable collateral to his great special courses 
of study. One of these, as we have seen, was hu- 
man nature, the knowledge of people, — the other 
politics, in the broadest sense of that term. They 



Why He Studied Euclid 63 

were continuous studies that applied to his life 
work, always connected with the forward view. 

Dooley said of Roosevelt in his charge on San 
Juan Hill, ^'He had wan eye on the Spaniards and 
the ither on the State of Noo Yorruk/^ 

Without doubt, Lincoln had for many years one 
eye fixed on the United States Senate. He stated 
long after, when he was chief executive, that the 
great ambition of his life had been, not to be presi- 
dent, but to serve one full term as senator. 

At this time, 1849-50, he had already been 
pitted against Douglas for more than twelve years, 
in the State Legislature, law practice and political 
campaigns. Long before the Great Debates they 
were consciously antagonists. 

And what had the study of Euclid to do with 
this? Lincoln had learned by close observation, 
in congress particularly, that he was not up to the 
highest standard as a public speaker. He had been 
especially impressed by that wonderful product 
of the South, Alexander H. Stephens, whom he 
admired most among the orators of the House. 
When he retired from Congress he determined to 
prepare for whatever conflict or opportunity might 
come to him. He wished to further educate him- 
self as a pubUc speaker, and that was why he 
studied Euclid. 

Why Euclid instead of Demosthenes or Cicero? 



64 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Lincoln saw that great issues were pending in 
the political field ; that if he were destined to take 
a leading part he must accomplish two things: 
First, he must understand thoroughly the ques- 
tions involved. Second, he must be able to reach 
the people with convincing argument that the 
views he held were true. He knew in his heart 
that he could never advocate a cause that was not 
right, — fully endorsed by his own conscience. 
He could not appeal to passion or prejudice, he 
could not do as he thought Douglas did, make plau- 
sible argument based on wrong premises or in- 
sidious half-truths. No, he must start with the 
whole truth as he understood it, though in the 
minority, and seek to convince his hearers by ap- 
pealing to reason and conscience. In order to do 
this his logic must be without flaw. He must not 
make one careless or unconsidered statement, 
and, most difficult of all, he must use language 
so simple and plain that even the uneducated man 
to whom he spoke should comprehend his meaning. 
He must be able to demonstrate in words, even as 
arithmetic is demonstrated by figures. 

From a child, he stated, he was seldom angry 
except for one thing: that people would speak in 
such a way that he could not tell what they 
meant, and he then determined that such a fault 
should never be his. 



Why He Studied Euclid 65 

And that was why he studied Euclid. He had 
been told on good authority that this was the best 
book in existence on demonstration — the only 
example of pure logic* Therefore, he determined 
to study and master its contents. He was willing 
to take the time, to be apart from his family, to 
cut short his income, for what he considered the 
greater gain; the discipline of his mind, the im- 
provement of his speaking. 

He consulted his teacher. Himself, who told 
him he should go to a quiet place; out of doors, 
like his first school room in Indiana or Kentucky 
woods. There were trees and sward upon the 
farm, situated as he said ^^ where prairie and timber 
joined.'^ 

^^I'll go with you,^' said the teacher, ^^and 
we'll see it through." ^^Yes," replied the pupil, 
'4t'll be another cinch on Douglas." And so it 
proved to be eight years later in the great debates. 

*"When I was through with Euclid," he says, "I thought I 
knew what demonstration meant." 



DID EUCLID MAKE HIM PRESIDENT? 

IT has often been stated that Lincoln's Cooper 
Institute speech made him President. Certain 
it is that by the effect it produced in the East, 
where he was not well known, he was placed in a 
position of advantage. A number of states, as 
usual, had ^'favorite sons" to present at the ap- 
proaching convention and Lincoln now became 
their second choice. As between him and Seward, 
who led on the first ballot, a majority of the dele- 
gates were for Lincoln. The convention was held 
in Chicago, May 16-18, 1860. The Cooper In- 
stitute speech had been delivered February 27th, 
three months, less one week, before. Considered 
as a master work of reasoning, and by its results 
it stands without doubt the greatest political 
speech ever made in America. Douglas was then 
the leading aspirant for nomination on the Demo- 
cratic ticket. Whatever statement he made was 
accepted by his followers as authoritative. In a 
recent speech at Columbus he had said: 

''Our fathers, when they framed the govern- 
ment under which we live, understood this ques- 
tion just as well, even better, than we do now." 



Did Euclid Make Him President? 67 

Lincoln said, opening his speech: '*I fully en- 
dorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this dis- 
course. ... It furnishes a precise and agreed start- 
ing point. ... It simply leaves the inquiry, 'What 
was the understanding those fathers had of the 
question mentioned?^ [That of slavery extension 
into new territory]. Here we have something as 
definite as a proposition of Euclid. Accepted by 
both parties, nothing remains to consider but a 
complete statement of the facts of history as shown 
by the records. According to the premise laid 
down by Douglas himself, what the record showed 
would determine the conclusion of the whole 
matter. Arriving at that conclusion, controversy 
should cease by rule of logic. This was made in- 
evitable by the assumption of Douglas that as the 
fathers thought then, so should we think now. 

This placed him on dangerous ground, for it 
devolved on him to show that 'Hhe fathers" had 
thought exactly as he did and his platform de- 
clared. Whether he believed that he could make 
it so appear by misstatement of facts, or whether 
he himself was ignorant of the facts, we do not 
know, but he woke up a political mathematician 
who knew a problem when he saw it, and the one 
method of demonstration. 

Lincoln proceeded to show what "the fathers 
understood" in a most complete manner. He 



68 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

had the entire mass of facts arranged in perfect 
order; he knew of every act considered both by 
the confederation and framers of the Constitu- 
tion. He knew by heart the names of all the 
members of different conventions, and how each 
one voted. Not only that, he traced the lives of 
nearly all, for a period of forty years afterward, to 
show how they voted in their respective states as 
well as in national assemblies — this to demon- 
strate exactly "what the fathers understood,'^ in 
accordance with the proposition Douglas himself 
had formulated. He swept the ground clean, 
leaving the Senator no standing place in his own 
chosen field of argument. 

This speech was the final stroke to the aspira- 
tion of Douglas to head a united party. He had 
been discredited with the Southern leaders eight- 
een months before by his evasive answers to 
the questions so adroitly put to him by Lincoln 
at Freeport, in the joint debate. This great 
speech convinced them further that, politically, 
he was a demolished idol. 

The Cooper Institute speech was published in 
whole or part by every Republican newspaper. 
It was quickly printed in pamphlet form and cir- 
culated as a campaign document. It contained a 
demonstration that people could understand. It 
turned clear light upon the darkened issues. 



Did Euclid Make Him President? 69 

Would this speech have been possible, in its 
entirety, with all its force, if Lincoln had not 
mastered Euclid — at the age of forty lying under 
the trees, on a farm, ^' where timber and prairie 
joined '7 



THREE INCH YARDSTICKS 

THE many discussions in books and periodicals 
of the question, ^'Was Lincoln a Christian?" 
appear to the writer to have little value. Do they 
not start too often with a narrow perspective and 
a question of definitions? 

Ask first: ^'Did he in his life show forth the 
Christ spirit?" If the answer is ^^Yes, in larger 
measure, we believe, than any other public man 
of all the centuries," does not that settle the ques- 
tion once for all? If it be that the one thing 
needed most in the world is the spirit of Christ 
permeating all affairs, that must be certainly 
what Heaven desires. 

Too often what the questioner has in mind is 
not the deep meaning of the spirit and the life, 
but, "Did he hold the particular beliefs about 
Christ that I hold myself?" 

Only a few years ago the writer was asked by a 
minister of note: "Do you think it possible that 
Abraham Lincoln could be saved? " "Why not? " 
I repUed. ' ' Because, ' ' said he, ' ' there is no evidence 



Three Inch Yardsticks 71 

that he ever made a personal, open confession of 
Christ as his Saviour.'^ 

To his mind, the confession of a man's whole 
life, the sacrifice even of that life for God's truth, 
counted for nothing without a formal declaration 
before the committee of a church. 

Let us be candid. Is not the word ^'christian'' 
in the very nature of the case an indefinite term? 
It did not originate with Christ or his apostles. 
We are told that ^'The disciples were first called 
christians at Antioch," — i.e. they were so named 
by others, not themselves. It was applied to them 
no doubt with disrespect. Out of necessity the 
''disciples" accepted this new name, which has 
been applied since to all who named the name, 
thousands of sects, each one believing that itself 
held the best definition. And blood has flowed 
between them oftentimes through centuries to 
establish by force their claims of superiority, or 
infallibility. 

It is quite probable that the Almighty Father 
does not think as we do in terms of human lan- 
guage. It is not likely that with Him the mean- 
ing of a law, physical or spiritual, depends on the 
turn of a word in any language; nor did he in- 
spire translators with absolute precision. 

Now we may be sure that Lincoln thought of 
all these things, and looking forward he had a 



7^ Lincoln Lessons for Today 

vision of better days to come, when all of Christen- 
dom would stand together for the fundamental 
truths and be satisfied. 

We should be thankful that he possessed the 
simple faith and courage to place his hand in that 
of the Almighty, relying on Him alone for strength 
and guidance. 



HIS RELIGIOUS CREED 

IF the writer were asked to formulate the rehgious 
creed of Lincoln in theological terms, he could 
not do it; but, the statement coming nearest would 
be that he was a Calvinistic Universalist. It would 
hardly be possible to find two words more fitting. 

He certainly believed emphatically in the 
Divine decrees, even in ordinary affairs. Surely 
he was not insincere — he was never that — when 
he wrote to Joshua Speed, July 4, 1842: 

''I believe God made me one of the instruments 
of bringing your Fanny and you together, which 
union I have no doubt, he foreordained. What- 
ever he designs he will do for me yet. ^ Stand still 
and see the salvation of the Lord' is my text just 
now.** 

He believed inflexibly that Divine retributive 
justice would be meted out to individuals and to 
nations. Read this, spoken most solemnly from 
the depths of his aching heart, in the second 
Inaugural address. Deploring the war with all 
its horrors, long drawn out and still unfinished, 
he speaks of the great individual and national 
sin that he believes is responsible — human slavery. 



74 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Quoting scripture at the beginning and close of his 
statement, he says: ^^Woe unto the world because 
of offenses . . . but woe to that man by whom the 
offense cometh." . . . '' Fondly do we hope — fer- 
vently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of 
war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills 
that it continue till all the wealth piled by the 
bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unre- 
quited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another 
drawn with the sword, as it was said three thou- 
sand years ago, so still it must be said, *The 
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether.'" 

Is not this a terrible indictment, equal to any 
pronounced by one of the old prophets against 
Israel? 

Face to face with the American people, this 
was what he dared say. No consideration of 
policy, nor fear of offending, could prevent his 
speaking what he believed to be the truth as to 
God's inflexible justice. 

:ic ^ »(: :{: 4: ^t 

Over against the Calvinistic view of foreordina- 
tion and the Decrees stands the opposite pole of 
his creed. However sure the punishment of evil- 
doing, even to the extent of blood atonement for 
national sins, as shown in the Inaugural, he could 



His Religious Creed 75 

not get the consent of his mind to shut the door 
of hope for any soul. This was the principle that 
caused him to commute the offenses of young 
soldiers, to give them another chance. Pie seldom 
pardoned outright but held them under suspended 
sentence. To end their lives seemed to him sheer 
waste and poor economy, human or divine. 

The Rev. Erasmus Manford, a distinguished 
Universalist divine, held a series of debates in 
Springfield, with a Mr. Lewis, taking the affirma- 
tive of the proposition of ^Hhe restitution of all 
things to God," i.e. that nothing should be lost in 
the finahty. Lincoln attended these lectures each 
day and night, listening attentively and nodding 
often to the points that Mr. Manford made. He 
said the doctor had the better of the argument, 
placed on a scripture basis. He respected Mr. 
Manford in a broad-minded way, for his ability, 
courage and honesty, as he did the great Bishop 
Simpson of the Methodist church, Beecher of the 
Congregationalist, and Dr. Campbell, the doughty 
old seceder from the Presbyterians. 

He held no brief for any sect, but recognized the 
truth that any creed, to live, must have something 
in it worth while. At the same time he may have 
thought it unfortunate that any body of Chris- 
tians should base its existence and its name on 
one particular idea. 



HIS RELIGION 

LINCOLN stated repeatedly that if any church 
J would limit its creed to the simple statement 
of Jesus Himself, summing up the Law and the 
Prophets, ''Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and all thy mind," and 'Hhy 
neighbor as thyself," leaving the individual free 
to formulate for himself what further belief he 
would, based on his own interpretation of the 
Word, that church he could give adherence to 
whole-heartedly and would gladly join. He could 
not bring himself, he said, to formally accept a 
creed with mental reservations. Of course he 
would have freely accepted the eleventh command- 
ment of Christ Himself: ''That ye love one 
another/' This might seem to be embodied in 
the Ten), but there's a difference. It represents a 
higher principle. It is not measured by self 
love, but is like the divine, unlimited. 

Mr. Lincoln had been brought up in a region and 
within a period especially given to religious con- 
troversy. Much of this to his clear reasoning ap- 
peared to be of no importance. Therefore, as an 
honest man, entitled to the privilege of thinking 



His Religion 77 

for himself, he held aloof from all the sects engaged 
in it. But he read his Bible habitually and 
pondered its precepts, always with a practical 
application. 

Mr. Rankin, his one time law-student, author 
of the book ^'Personal Recollections of Abraham 
Lincoln" says of him: 

''He lived his religion. It was a constant, 
pervasive part of the man." But: ''It was so 
intermingled and incorporated with the other 
elements of his unique personality as to defy 
complete analysis or description." 

He reports that Mrs. Lincoln stated: "Mr. 
Lincoln's religion was poetry," and adds, "she was 
probably correct. If so it was of an idealism akin 
to that of those who ' do always behold the face of 
my Father in Heaven.'" 

He had more scriptural truth at command, for 
immediate appHcation to affairs, public or private, 
than nine out of ten of the preachers of his time. 
He has incorporated more rehgious truth into 
speeches, letters and state papers than all the 
other presidents up to this day. 

This spirit of independence on his part was 
entirely free from pride or self-assertion, or any 
belHgerent feeling. He was simply and modestly 
true to his own conscience. He knew very well 
the benefits that come from association and or- 



78 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

ganized effort, and laid no blame on others for 
their peculiar tenets. He was absolutely demo- 
cratic in religion as in politics, allowing freely to 
every man the right of opinion and choice. 

And he always helped to support one organiza- 
tion or another. He held a church pew in accord 
mth the choice of his wife, attended services him- 
self, encouraged the minister in his work, and 
gave his moral support as far as possible to all the 
churches; to every organization that had for its 
object the uplift of himianity. He was particu- 
larly interested in the advance of the temperance 
cause, that he upheld not only by his words but 
personal example of the strictest sort. Let it be 
shown where any of these acts were inconsistent 
with a devout inner life. 



A CHURCH MEMBER AT LARGE 

WHEN a state is entitled by its population to 
one more Congressman, and the districts 
can not be at once readjusted to meet the require- 
ment, there is elected on occasion a Congressman 
at large who represents the whole people. 

It may be said of Lincoln that by his universal 
sympathy, his complete tolerance, his catholicity 
of spirit, he was a churchman at large for the 
United States during the war. All looked to him, 
came to him, advised with him, more freely than 
they could have done had he been formally con- 
nected with any one of them. May not the Al- 
mighty have had a purpose in this also? 

And the Quakers came. The aged woman held 
his hand and said: '^Thee must not think thee 
stands alone, friend Abraham. We are all praying 
for thee. . . . The Lord hath appointed thee, all 
our hearts are with thee, and the people love thee. 
Take comfort; God is with thee.'' And he re- 
plied, ^'I know it. It is not hope I have, but 
knowledge, that He is sustaining me. . . . Other- 
wise my heart would have broken long ago. . . . 
It holds me to my work. . . . This has been a hard 



80 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

day. I was almost overwhelmed when you came 
in. You have given a cup of cold water to a very 
thirsty and grateful man. . . . God bless you all." 

The Baptists came and he could say, ''I thank 
you for adding to the effective and almost unani- 
mous support which the Christian communities 
are giving to the country and to liberty. . . . In- 
deed, it is difficult to conceive how it could be 
otherwise with any one professing Christianity." 

To the delegation of the Presbyterian General 
Assembly he could say: ''It has been my happi- 
ness to receive testimonials of a similar nature 
from, I believe, all denominations of Christians. . . , 
Relying, as I do, upon the Almighty Power, and 
encouraged as I am by the resolutions which you 
have just read, with the support which I receive 
from Christian men, I shall not hesitate to use all 
the means at my command to secure the termina- 
tion of this rebellion." 

To the Methodist delegation he could say: 
** Nobly sustained as the Government has been by 
all the churches, I would utter nothing which 
might in the least appear invidious against any. 
Yet without this it may be fairly said that the 
Methodist Episcopal Church not less devoted than 
the best, is by its greater numbers the most im- 
portant of all. It is no fault of others that the 
Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, 



A Church Member at Large 81 

more nurses to the hospital, and more prayers to 
heaven than any. God bless it, and all the 
churches, and blessed be God, who, in this our 
great trial giveth us the churches.'' Was not 
Lincoln entitled to be enrolled a member of the 
church at large? 



HIS GREAT SERMON 

WHEN Mr. Lincoln delivered his Cooper 
Institute speech, he was fifty-one years 
and three weeks old. He had often spoken of 
himself as ''an old man." Two years before, 
during one of the joint debates he paused to read 
from a document held in his hand. A man in the 
audience called out jeeringly, 'Tut on your 
specs!" "Yes," he replied, in a good-natured 
tone, "I am compelled to do so, for I am 
an old man." Evidently his hfe seemed to him 
already long, for he had been at hard work, with 
brawn or brain, since childhood, beginning "in 
his eighth year," as he elsewhere said. 

Being the greatest living preacher of pohtical 
truth, Mr. Lincoln was inclined to begin his dis- 
course with a text, and as a lesson for all preachers 
it may be noted that he stuck close to it to the 
end. 

The text Avas taken from a speech recently 
made by Douglas referring to the paramount 
question: "Has the national government the con- 
stitutional right to exclude slavery from United 



\ 

His Great Sermon 83 

States territories? If so, should the right be 
exercised?" On both propositions Mr. Douglas 
had, on his own motion, and probably without con- 
sidering where it might lead him, given out the 
text that Lincoln used. ''Our fathers, when 
they framed the government under which we live, 
understood this question just as well, and even 
better, than we do now." 

^'Very well, accepted," says Lincoln. 

The whole responsibility, we see, rests with 
*^The Fathers." All we have to do is to learn 
definitely what ''the fathers understood." (We 
will take the liberty of numbering several of the 
leading questions.) 

First: "What is the form of government under 
which we live? 

"The Constitution of the United States." 
That "consists of the original, framed in 1787 . . . 
and twelve subsequently framed amendments, 
the first ten of which were added in 1789." 

Second: "Who were our fathers that framed 
the Constitution? 

"The 'thirty-nine^ who signed the original 
instrument may fairly be called our fathers who 
framed that part of the present government. It 
is fair to say that they represented the opinion 
and sentiment of the whole nation at that time." 

Third: "What is the question which, according 



84 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

to the text, those fathers understood ^just as well, 
or better than we do now' ? 

''It is this: Does the proper division of local 
from Federal authority, or anything in the Con- 
stitution, forbid our Federal Government to con- 
trol as to slavery in our Federal Territories?" 

Please note the careful wording and inclusive- 
ness of this question. 

Upon this Senator Douglas holds the affirmative 
and RepubUcans the negative. This affirmation 
and denial form an issue : and this issue, this ques- 
tion, is precisely what the text declares our fathers 
understood, ''better than we." 

Fourth: "Let us now inquire whether the 
'thirty-nine,' or any of them, ever acted upon 
this question; and if they did, how they acted 
upon it." 

Do not these propositions appear to you like a 
mathematical, Euclidian base, for the exact solu- 
tion of a problem? It is a foundation without flaw 
for the argument of fact that follows. 

After quoting several instances, where members 
of the "thirty-nine" had voted for slavery pro- 
hibition, including the "ordinance of '87," Mr. 
Lincoln adds the following "clincher": 

"In 1789, by the first Congress that sat under 
the Constitution an act was passed to enforce the 
ordinance of '87, including the prohibition of 



His Great Sermon 85 

slavery in the Northwestern territory. The bill 
for this act was reported by one of the Hhirty- 
nine^ — Thomas Fitzsimmons, then a member of 
the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. 
It went through all its stages without a word of 
opposition and finally passed both branches with- 
out ayes and nays, which is equivalent to a unani- 
mous passage. In this congress there were sixteen 
of the 'thirty-nine ^ fathers who framed the original 
Constitution.'^ Mr. Lincoln gives their names, 
one being James Madison, afterward President of 
the United States. ''Again, George Washington, 
another of the 'thirty-nine,^ then President, ap- 
proved and signed the bill/' 



FOR CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR 

Of all true words occasion fitting. 
By men of honored names; 
His stand apart, like apples golden, 
Ip silver shining frames. 

Proverbs 25 : 11. 

ONE of the greatest lines that Edwin Markham 
ever wrote was this, in his ode to Lincoln : 

*^His words were oaks in acorns. ^^ 

It is true. Planted deep enough to take root in 
the thought of mankind anywhere, they grow into 
trees of righteousness — and the trees shall be hke 
those of the Apocalj^ise, ''for the heaUng of the 
Nations." 

On the fourth of March, 1865, the President de- 
livered his second Inaugural Address. It is the 
briefest document of its kind save one, and the 
greatest, unless we except his first Inaugural. 
It was written on the spiritual heights of patriot- 
ism. There is not to be found within it one 
touch of the ego. 

The greatest battle of the war, that of ballots, 
had been fought and won, for the union. And 
the Address is a psalm of praise, not at all for his 



For Christmas and New Year 87 

personal success, but for the Blessing upon his 
country. He accepts the election as God^s promise 
of victory for the great cause to which he is soon 
to give 'Hhe last full measure of devotion.*' 

The storms of passion rage about him, the war 
is coming to its climax. But his great spirit rides 
above the storm. He knows about the Hate, the 
djisposition of Revenge, the cruel lust for punish- 
ment soon to ensue — in the name of Justice. 

Looking calmly forward to the coming issue, he 
speaks four words — 

^^WlTH MALICE TOWARD NONE." 

Let none of these things have place he means, 
in our settlement with the Southern people. Let 
love prevail above all else. Let Kindness govern 
with your so-called justice, my countrymen! 

Having in mind the bitterness of the political 
contest, knowing of all the cruel, malicious things 
that had been said of himself and his co-workers, 
of the natural resentment that would be felt by 
those of his own party, he adds four words more, — 

^^WlTH CHARITY FOR ALL." 

How they harmonize hke musical notes with the 
words of Christ and the song of the angels : 
^' Peace on Earth — Good will toward men." 
^^ Blessed are the Peacemakers." 
"If ye forgive not men their trespasses. . . ." 
Lincoln knew that many of the North were 



88 Lincoln Lessoiis for Today 

hating the people of the South : that many of the 
South also hated those of the North. ^^Rise above 
all this," was the soul of his message: ^^Love alone 
can make us one people." And soon his voice was 
stilled, his words unheeded, often disregarded. It 
has taken more than a half century for their 
reahzation. 

Is there not a message for us each this day in 
those eight w^ords? — to crush out petty thoughts 
and selfish motives, to widen our vision of life and 
duty, enlarge the spirit of love toward all around 
us, and to all the world? 



TO ALL PATRIOTS 

IN the holiday time we gave what seemed to be 
an appropriate message taken from the second 
inaugural address, March 4, 1865, just one month 
and ten days before his removal from the earth. 

The text consisted of two clauses that rank 
with the very beatitudes of Christ; are in truth 
but a new expression of His Spirit — two clauses of 
four words each — 

With Malice Toward None; 
With Charity for AU. 

Immortal words, destined to shine evermore on 
the scroll of the ages. Just before them, closing 
the preceding paragraph, is a quotation from 
scripture (Ps. 19): 9) : '^The judgments of the Lord 
are true and righteous altogether." 

The eight words refer strictly to a state of mind 
— of feeling, of motive. They are an appeal to the 
heart, for greater love that shall displace hate and 
overcome all prejudice and resentment and re- 
vengefulness : an appeal both to North and South. 

Then, with only a semicolon between, comes a 
further statement calling to Action: '^With firm- 



90 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, 
let us strive to finish the work we are in: to bind 
up the Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his 
orphan — to do all Vv^hich may achieve and cherish 
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with 
all nations." 

So ends the Inaugural message. Read the words 
over and over again, dear reader. Try and absorb 
their full meaning to our time. Let us not forget 
his recognition of ''The judgments of the Lord," 
the plea for light and guidance, ''as God gives us 
to See." 

But we are to act upon this guidance. We must 
strive to "finish the work^\' There must be no 
halt, no "backward step," no surrender of prin- 
ciple, no compromise with wrong. What a lesson 
for our country, the world — and for each one. 

Should not Lincoln's words, freighted with deep 
meaning, come to us all like a divine message? 



OTHER NATIONS 

AS you read the closing paragraph of Lincoln's 
last deliverance to the American People 
that comes like a benediction after prayer, did you 
reflect in particular on these words — 'Ho do all 
that may achieve a lasting peace among ourselves, 

AND WITH ALL NATIONS?" 

He had the world-wide view, that was never lost 
or obscured by the clouds that covered our own 
land. From his early boyhood, wherever he had 
lived, he was known for the spirit of neighborliness. 
He realized always, and never forgot that nations 
were but neighbors who ought to dwell in harmony 
one with another. He would accept war only as 
a bitter and dire necessity, for conservation of the 
Right, — ''as God gives us to see the Right.'^ 
When at the Civil War's beginning, the Secretary 
of State lost his mental balance for the moment, 
and would send a note to England not carefully 
worded, Lincoln promptly erased each question- 
able word, and freed the document of every ex- 
pression that might possibly irritate or offend. 



92 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

The Secretary thought as the fool thinketh, as 
rulers through the centuries have thought, to 
avert war at home by making war abroad. His 
foot slipped and he was falling, till the President 
caught him by the arm, and held him steady. So 
did he later, at a most critical moment when 
many lost their poise with temper and excite- 
ment, in the Mason-Slidell affair. '^Keep cool," 
he said in substance, ''and reflect. Remember 
England is our neighbor, with equal rights; con- 
sider — put ourselves in her place. Suppose that 
she had boarded one of our ships and taken 
therefrom two passengers who happened to be 
persons obnoxious to her, bound on some errand 
she disapproved. It would not be right for her, 
neither is it right for us. We must give up these 
men. It may be for the moment humiliating to 
do so, but it is better to wound our pride than do 
a wrong." 

Lincoln would have hailed with joy a possible 
treaty of world peace. But he would not have 
compromised right or agreed with any injustice 
to obtain such an agreement. 

As in the making of a flatboat on the Ohio or the 
Sangamon, he would insist that every piece of 
timber should be sound. 

God knows, dear friends, we want world union 
— and perpetual peace thereby, but we shall not 



Other Nations 93 

consciously endorse a wrong that any neighbor 
would inflict upon another. Honest we should be 
in whatsoever we endorse, let come what will. 
So Lincoln stood, and so stand we, let us hope and 
trust. 



GUARDED SPEECH 

WHAT a lesson public men might learn, and 
others too, by the study of Lincoln's tact 
and SILENCE. By this is meant his careful avoid- 
ance of the pitfalls of speech either spoken or 
written. There is nothing more dangerous to the 
reputation of a man in high place than ill-con- 
sidered or impulsive statements. Even the foolish 
statement of another man, allowed to pass unre- 
buked or uncorrected, has defeated one candidate 
for the presidency of the United States. A minis- 
ter of the gospel, tempted by a phrase, spoke three 
words in an address of welcome to his candidate; 
and the candidate not being quick to realize their 
dangerous significance, and to protest them in- 
stantly, they flew like multiplied arrows to the 
voters of New York, the pivotal state, and lost 
the election for him and his party. ''R.um, Ro- 
manism and Rebellion" made Burchard the 
Nemesis of Blaine and handed out the chiefest 
office to Grover Cleveland. 

We may be quite sure, I think, that the words 
would not have escaped the attention of Lincoln. 
He had a wonderful sense of the fitness of things, 



Guarded Speech 95 

and quickness to see the power for good or evil in 
a phrase. 

In this same city of New York, twenty-four 
years before Burchard killed Blaine with three R's, 
the attempt was made to trap Lincoln into a 
political speech, while he was on his pre-inaugural 
trip. He parried their friendly but unwise effort 
in this fashion : 

^'I did not understand that I was brought here 
to make a speech: that being in this room where 
Daniel Webster and Henry Clay had made 
speeches, I should also say something worthy of 
myself and this audience ... of course, I could . . . 
make an argument on a political question without 
much preparation. But I have been occupying a 
position of silence — of avoiding public speaking 
— and public writing. ... I am brought before you 
now and asked to make a speech when you all ap- 
prove more than anything else that I have been 
keeping silence." He was cheered, and then con- 
tinued: ''It seems to me that the response you 
give to that remark ought to justify me in closing 
right here. 

''I have said several times on this journey, and 
now repeat, that when the time comes I shall take 
the ground that I think is right — right for the 
North, for the South, for the East, for the West — 
for the whole country. Have I said enough?" 



96 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Loud cries of '^No, no!'^ and ^Hhree cheers for 
Lincoln!'' 

*^Now, my friends," he responded, ''there ap- 
pears to be a difference of opinion between you 
and me, and I really feel called upon to decide the 
question myself." This ended the '^speech." 

Of course he had been speaking to many audi- 
ences, and would speak again ; but only as a patriot 
to patriots ; not with regard to details of policy or 
argument of questions. He was appealing to the 
hearts of the people, to all that made for unity, 
and he was trying not to touch the keys of discord 
anywhere. At least three Presidents since have 
not been as wise. 



FAREWELL 
(Springfield, III., Feb. 11, 1861). 

Farewell for aye to this love hallowed home, 

Where all thy sons were bom: 
Bespeak the prayers of these, thy neighbor-friends, 

— Tear-dimmed their eyes this mom. 

A PRAIRIE town of plain buildings, with 
muddy streets, a house of tender memories, 
well out toward the surrounding farms. The 
family of five: three boys there were — a fourth 
had been. 

Scant sleep their parents found that night, with 
heartstrings tense. 

First light of morn that pierced the drizzling 
rain. 

Then splashing sound of hoofs and wheels: one 
backward look — forever. 

A waiting train, eastbound; loud-breathing en- 
gine; a weatherbeaten face looks out and back- 
ward from its window. 

Upon the rearward platform stands the man of 
towering height and strength. 

Many have gathered at this early hour to say 



98 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

^^Good-by'' and hear his parting words. With 
tears upon his cheek, he speaks : 

^^My Friends: No one not in my position can 
reahze the sadness I feel at this parting. To these 
people I owe everything. Here I have lived for 
more than a quarter of a century. Here my chil- 
dren were born, here one of them lies buried. I 
know not when if ever I shall see you again. I 
go to assume a task more difficult than that which 
has devolved on any other man since the days of 
Washington. He never would have succeeded 
except for the aid of Divine Providence, on which 
he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed 
without the same Divine blessing. On the same 
Almighty Being I place my rehance for support 
and guidance. I hope that you, my friends, will 
all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, 
without which I cannot succeed, but with which 
success is certain. Again, I bid you an affectionate 
farewell. '^ 

He bowed his head and turned away, his hand 
upraised with blessing. He could not hear the 
sobs that followed while the train went forth. 

Through many miles, from the window he beheld 
famihar scenes. At Decatur, while the crowds 
were cheering, his eye sought out the ground where 
one-and-thirty years before, his wagon stood, 
with the panting oxen just come from the Indiana 



Farewell 99 

woods. And he had passed, but half an hour 
before, the very spot where he had helped to plow 
and fence their first brave homestead on the 
prairie. 

And now his eyelids close for thought. To- 
morrow — on his birthday; in the Capitol of an- 
other state, shall be a noble speech. 



ON CHILDHOOD READING 

ON this same pre-inaugural trip of which we 
have been writing, among the places visited 
was Trenton, New Jersey. Here, as elsewhere, 
Mr. Lincoln spoke briefly on patriotic themes, 
keeping ^' silent'^ as to political poUcies in ac- 
cordance with his determined plan. His first 
thought was of local history as related to the 
Revolution, when Washington made the celebrated 
crossing of the Delaware River to capture the 
British army, of Hessians chiefly, at daybreak. 
After a few introductory sentences he said : 

^'Away back in my childhood, the earliest days 
of my being able to read, I got hold of a small 
book, that few of you perhaps have ever seen, 
^'Weems' Life of Washington." I remember all 
the accounts there given of the battlefields and 
struggles for the liberties of the country, and none 
fixed itself in my imagination so deeply as the 
struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The 
crossing of the river, the hardships endured at 
that time, all impressed my mind most vividly, 
and you men know, for you have all been boys, 
how these early impressions last longest. And / 



On Childhood Reading 101 

recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, 
that there must have been something even more 
than national independence; something that held 
out a great promise to all the people of the world to 
all time . . . that this Union, the Constitution, and 
the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated. '^ 

There are other important lessons contained in 
this speech, but I wish here to emphasize one in 
particular. 

Where was this boy when he read of ^^that 
struggle," and did so think about it? 

He was in a log cabin home, or lying under a 
tree near by, in the woods of the West. There was 
not a schoolhouse probably within twent}^ miles 
of where he lived. How old was he? Not beyond 
his tenth year, for he says, ^^My earliest days of 
being able to read.'^ 

Who was his teacher? His own mother, who was 
taken from him when he was nine years and eight 
months old. She it was who taught him to read, 
and with the reading told him of his own patriotic 
ancestors. 

And what was the ^' small book,'^ this ^^Weems" 
of which he speaks? 

It was a warm-blooded, enthusiastic story of 
Washington and the war. The critics said that in 
many details it was inaccurate, and they ^ laughed 
it out of court,'' as the work of a visionary writer. 



102 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

But it was vivid, entertaining, essentially true, 
the story with a soul. The influence of this book 
on the mind and heart of one boy who grew up to 
speak the words above quoted, was well worth 
the cost of its publication, and a full offset of its 
faults. Moreover, we know very well that thou- 
sands of other lads were inspired likewise, and 
were made better citizens by the story it told. 

What lesson, parents? First, that the vital 
elements of education depend not on schools, but 
the home, and you. Second, that there is no esti- 
mating the power for good of one ^^ small book^' 
well absorbed. And the lifelong influence: Lin- 
coln says, '^I recollect thinking theny Read 
those four words over a few times, and let their 
meaning sink in. What patriotic book is in your 
home? How much is it being read by your boy, 
your girl, yourself? 

What was the mental food of that man who 
grew to be the greatest of his century? 

Few books, but choice, read o'er and o'er again, 

Before the fagot light; 
Or in the Sabbath stillness of the woods, 

/Vnd pondered, day and night. 

Treasure the books that are worth re-reading: 
and that make you think — and think. 



BREVITY OF SPEECH 

LINCOLN could make a long speech when oc- 
casion demanded, in a political campaign 
when the opinions of assembled hundreds or 
thousands had to be taken account of separately. 
But he never for a moment lost sight of the main 
issue involved. Read through his ^^ Complete 
Works/' and you will find that usually his de- 
liverances were short. Brevity and concentration 
characterized the speeches he made on this jour- 
ney to Washington that we have been following. 

In order to get the full meaning of his utterances, 
one needs to read slowly, thoughtfully, and repeat, 
as if studying scripture. 

The speech to the Senate of New Jersey quoted 
from in our last paper, deserves to be preserved 
as a whole among his classics. Following the 
reference to our Revolutionary '^struggle" note 
the following: '^I am exceedingly anxious that 
this Union, the Constitution and the liberties of 
the people shall be perpetuated." (How?) ^' in ac- 
cordance with the original idea for which that 
struggle was made." 

Liberty? Yes, but not license, not disruption, 



104 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

not overthrow, not destruction of the Union, but 
hberty under law. That was what he meant, 
what he stood for and was determined to enforce. 
And that is exactly what we mus^ stand for now. 
The majority shall Rule — with a great, big R. 

His personal relation? ''I shall be most happy 
indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the 
hands of the Almighty, and of this His almost 
chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that 
great struggle." This, as we know, involved an- 
other and greater struggle, just then impending, 
one he hoped to avert, but from which, if in- 
evitable, he would not flinch. 

And now note his frankness, his simple friend- 
liness, ignoring of party spirit: ^'I learn that the 
majority of this body is of gentlemen who, in the 
exercise of their best judgment in the choice of a 
chief magistrate, did not think I was the man. 
I understand, nevertheless, that they come for- 
ward here to greet me as the constitutionally 
elected President of the United States — as citizens 
of the United States, to meet the man who, for the 
time being, is the representative of the majesty 
of the Nation — united by the single purpose to 
perpetuate the Constitution, the Union, and the 
liberties of the people. As such, I accept this 
reception more gratefully than I could do did I 
believe it were tendered to me as an individual." 



Brevity of Speech 105 

In his address immediately following, to the 
House of Representatives, he made a statement 
distinctly applicable to our own time: ^'The man 
does not live who is more devoted to peace than 
I am, none who would do more to preserve it, but 
it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly.'^ 
(Prolonged cheers followed this expression). '^If 
I do my duty and do right, you will sustain me, 
will you not?^' (Cries of ^'Yes, yes, we will!") 

^^I trust that I may have your assistance in 
piloting the Ship of State through this voyage, 
surrounded by perils as it is, for if it should suffer 
wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for 
another voyage/^ 

Four years and two months later Whitman 
wrote : 

O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done; 
The ship has weathered every rack, 

The prize we sought is won; 
. . . But O heart! heart! heart! the bleeding drops of red 
Where on the deck my Captain lies, fallen cold and dead. 



STANTON'S VISION 

IN the '^Complete Works" of Lincoln and other 
collections, some hundreds of little telegrams or 
letters are not included. They were considered 
hardly worth while, being so monotonously alike. 
Why should people be interested, the compilers 
thought, in fifty pages of matter like the following, 
brief deliverances, referring to one subject, viz: 
the commutation of death sentences of common 
boy soldiers? 

To Mrs. Mary McCook Baldwin, Nashville, Tenn. : 

This is an order to the officer having in charge to execute 
the death sentence upon John S. Yomig, to suspend the same 
until further order. 

A. Lincoln. 

Some one might ask: '^Who were these people, 
and of what interest their case to us?'' 

Well, we know this, the case was of vital in- 
terest to them and of interest to the heart of Lin- 
coln. There is no record we believe that ''the 
further order" in such cases was ever issued. 

To Major Thomas, Chattanooga, Tenn.: 

Suspend execution of Young Perry, from Wisconsin, con- 
demned for sleeping on his post, until further orders. 



Stanton's Vision 107 

On February 12, 1864, his birthday, Mr. Lin- 
coln's mind was particularly burdened with the 
case of one James Taylor, fearing that the order 
might not reach in time the officer in charge. He 
sent several dispatches to Boston and New York, 
one of which was to Gen. Dix. He seemed to wish 
to celebrate his own birthday by saving a life. 

And Stanton stormed, saying Lincoln was 
breaking down the discipline of the army. And 
Lincoln knew better. He was saving boys, nearly 
all under 18, and their broken-hearted mothers. 

Then there came a night. High pillowed on a 
borrowed bed lies the unconscious Chief, measur- 
ing out with stertorous breath the few remaining 
hours of life. Those who have a right are there; 
one, the inflexible War Lord, his heart torn as 
never before. Through the long hours, with head 
bowed upon his hands, he sits and thinks upon the 
past, — and the future. He has new vision of the 
planes of life. He sees the Chief upon the higher, 
himself the lower; he, feared, respected for his 
force: the Chief, bound to the souls of men with 
cords of love, now and evermore. They heard 
him speaking once as to himself, '^Yes, he was 
the Master of us all, who ruled with Love in 
highest place.'' 

Now light is breaking on the eastern sky. A 
door seems opening through the corridors of Time. 



108 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

The room is silent except for sobs. A few faint 
breathings, and the bells will toll. The Warrior's 
vision is complete. The deep tones of his voice 
pronounce an immortal tribute: 

**N0W HE BELONGS TO THE AGES." 



THE UNSELFISH MAN:— WANTS LESS, 

NOT MORE 

ONLY once I think it is recorded that Lincoln 
sued for the collection of a fee. The party- 
was a wealthy corporation, the Illinois Central 
Railroad, and the fee was for unusually valuable 
service. The bill was paid with costs. Lincoln 
felt that it would be an unrighteous thing to yield 
the point. It v/as the principle involved that he 
cared for more than the fee, though he needed 
that very much. 

As a rule his feeling was with respect to any 
fee, ^^This is enough," or ^'It should be less." 
Another man would say, '^I fear I am not getting 
enough." Lincoln said: ^'I fear I shall be taking 
too much." If there was any question about the 
matter he always preferred to give the benefit of 
doubt to the other party. 

Here is an illustrative story, that we think has 
not been heretofore published. It is given us by 
the Rev. W. S. Marquis, who, when young, lived 
in Bloomington, Illinois. It was told him as a 
personal experience by Mr. Flagg, a merchant of 
that city. Bloomington, County Seat of McLean, 



no Lincoln Lessons for Today 

was an important point on ''The Circuit " travelled 
by Lincoln and other attorneys in the early days. 
Mr. Flagg related that once he had a case in court 
involving several thousand dollars' worth of prop- 
erty. It had hung on year after year, his lawyers 
not being able apparently to untangle the legal 
knots involved. Meeting Lincoln in town, he asked 
him to take charge of the matter, thinking that 
within a year he might get matters straightened 
out. After a short investigation, Mr. Lincoln 
made a motion in court which resulted in a 
speedy settlement that was highly satisfactor}^ 
Then the merchant expected that a statement for 
legal service would come soon by mail, but it did 
not. After some months Mr. Lincoln came into 
the store, apparently for just a friendly chat. 
The man supposed he had a collection in mind, 
but he made no reference to it. As he started to 
go away the merchant called him back to say that 
he wished to settle his bill. Lincoln seemed sur- 
prised, then said, after thinking a moment: ''O, 
that motion I made in court, — that was a small 
matter, only took a few minutes. I quite forgot 
about it." ''But it was not a small matter for 
me," replied the man, "and I want a bill for your 
services." "O well," said Lincoln, "if you feel 
that way about it, give me ten dollars." The 
merchant turned to his desk and wrote a check 



The Unselfish Man 111 

for a hundred, but it was only by urgent insistence 
that he could induce Lincoln to accept it. 

It may be that, as Lamon said, Lincoln lacked 
'^ money sense/ ^ But if he had possessed it — the 
least disposition to reach for ^^more," would he 
have been the Lincoln he was, and is to us now? 

What men in all history have gripped the heart 
of mankind? Those who were satisfied with less 
and little, or those who wanted more? There is 
great spiritual value in the non-acceptance of 
money, especially when the payer is in greater 
need than the receiver, or has needy ones depend- 
ent upon him. 

There was once a Carpenter in Palestine who 
became the preacher of very plain truth. We pre- 
sume that for some years he worked for meager 
wages. For all his worldly possessions the sol- 
diers cast lots. But who may estimate the wealth 
he gave to mankind in perpetuity? Often the 
question is asked: '^What would Jesus do?'^ We 
may also wisely ask with reference to political 
and business life, ^'What would Lincoln do? — or 
say?*' 



THE MAN WHO STAYED WITH HIS JOB 

IT was characteristic of Lincoln from childhood 
that if he undertook a thing he stayed with it 
till he completed it. If he cut down a tree and 
cleaned it up, trunk, limb and top, the job was 
done thoroughly. Speaking of this, he said, long 
afterward, '^Up to my twenty-third year I was 
almost constantly handling that most useful 
instrument'^ — the ax. 

There is great discipline in the school of tools, 
and every boy — and girl — should have tutelage in 
it. There is no better instrument in the world 
than the woodman's ax for one who is able to 
handle it. The pupil learns to strike straight in 
a given line, and follows to the end a definite plan. 
Abraham Lincoln went at study in the same way. 
If it was a spelling book, when he got through 
with it he could spell. Nobody could turn him 
down. 

The first borrowed grammar he learned prac- 
tically by heart. 

When he was nearly forty years old, and had 
been a term in Congress, he went out to his 
father's farm and studied EucUd, lying under the 



The Man Who Stayed with His Job 113 

trees, till he had mastered five of the six books; 
and, as he said, thought he knew the meaning of 
the word ^' demonstrate." 

He did not stay long with his early ventm-e in 
trade, for which he had no fitness; but he stayed 
fifteen years with the debts contracted, till every 
dollar was paid with high interest. 

He was not over forward in taking new respon- 
sibilities, but once assumed, he never flinched or 
shifted them. When he went to Washington in 
1861,'"no one knew better than he the measure of 
his problem. Addressing the Legislature of New 
York, he said: ^' While it is true that I hold my- 
self the humblest of all individuals who have been 
elevated to the Presidency, I have a more difficult 
task to perform than any of them." 

Nevertheless, when he took the oath of oflBce 
a few days later, and read in clear tones his first 
Inaugural address, the hand that took the reins of 
government did not tremble. 

A few days later he received an astonishing 
letter from his Secretary of State, submitting 
''Some thoughts for the president's considera- 
tion." In this he stated five propositions, the first 
being: ''We are at the end of a month's adminis- 
tration, and yet without a pohcy, either domestic 
or foreign." (For the letter entire see Nicolay 
and Hay, Vol. Ill, 445-7, or Tarbell, Vol. Ill, 29.) 



114 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Seward proposed that to avoid war between 
the states, we should at once evacuate Fort 
Sumpter, seek or demand explanations of Great 
Britain, Russia, Spain and France, and send 
agents into Canada, Mexico and Central America, 
to stir up opposition to over-sea governments. 
This ^^ policy ^^ could have no other logical result 
than to embroil us in war with several nations at 
once: All for the purpose, and with the hope of 
diverting the South from its plan of disunion, and 
bringing the sections together for common de- 
fence. Then he proposed that if the president did 
not wish to assume the responsibihty of carrying 
out such a policy, he would do it for him. ''It is 
not my especial province'' he wrote, ''but I neither 
seek to evade or assume it.'' Whoever now reads 
this strange document can only thank our stars 
for the choice of the convention in Chicago, nearly 
a year before. 

To a man not completely master of himself, 
the like of this would have produced an explosion : 
but the answer was very simple and modest, 
though positive. It was to the effect that having 
been chosen by the people to do a certain work, 
and having taken his oath to perform it, the 
president could only go forward in the line of 
duty, as duty should be revealed from day to day. 
The secretary msely took his place in the cabinet 



The Man Who Stayed with His Job 115 

and stayed with great usefulness through the en- 
tire administration of Lincoln and that of his 
successor. 

The explanation of his conduct is not hard to 
discover. He was in a panic over the state of the 
country. He had been grievously disappointed 
with his failure to receive himself the highest 
office. He apparently overrated his own abilities, 
and much underrated those of his chief. 

A few weeks later he wrote to his wife, ^'The 
president is the best of us.'' 

Lincoln, having put his hand to the work, would 
never let go if he lived, till the work was done. 
He stayed right at headquarters, attending 
strictly to his business. He never went per- 
ambulating 'round the country making speeches, 
though often urged to go. He had a better use for 
his energies. He knew the central point of his 
duty and stuck to it. 

Once when he was very weary, he said with a 
plaintive smile, ^'I wish that George Washington 
or some other of the old worthies, might come and 
take this place a few days and let me go for a rest." 

With the exceptions of going to Philadelphia to 
help open the Sanitary Commission, and to 
Gettysburg, he went nowhere till the war was 
nearly ended; when he made a trip to Richmond, 
not without risk. 



THE MONUMENT OF LIVING STONES 

DURING two decades it was my good fortune 
to be in Springfield every second year. Two 
places there I never failed to visit : one, the Home 
place, so dear to Lincoln's heart, that he had 
looked upon for the last time that dismal Feb- 
ruary morning in the year 186L Often this would 
be my morning walk before breakfast. I would 
stand before it for a few moments, seeing in im- 
agination the tall man going in or out, ^Hhe boys'' 
following or holding to his hands and coat. 

Another place I never failed to see once on each 
visit was the great and noble monument, about 
two and a half miles distant. Seeing it many 
times one grew to love it more and more, every 
stone within and each figure upon it, for all they 
typify of patriotism, loyaltj^ and sacrifice. 

It has a beautiful setting, where prairie and 
timber meet ; and in May, the time of my visit. 

The verdure new is springing. 
The birds are sweetly singing; 
A joyful chorus ringing, 
To the sky. 

But now I am thinking of another monument, 
one that Stanton perhaps visualized upon that 



The Monument of Living Stories 117 

night in the still room of death. I am thinking 
of those telegrams that take so little space on 
paper yet filled a great place in many lives. I 
think of them as living stones, electrified with 
hope, and joy and peace. They make a monu- 
ment no man's hand may fashion for another to 
behold, but that each may visualize for himself. 

Think of those silent messages winging swiftly, 
by day or night from the operator's keyboard in 
Washington, dictated at odd moments in between 
the weightiest affairs; flying over mountain and 
valley, down by the moonlit waters of the Mis- 
sissippi it may be, tapping at the door of some 
military prison, whispering to a general in his tent 
or to some officer of a firing squad the words, 
^^Stay! Do not execute!" And somewhere near, 
with sleepless eyes fixed on ceiling or sky, there 
lies a boy to whom the words are repeated; and 
he knows that on the morrow he shall live and 
not die. Two words are on his lips, repeated 
over and again — '^Mother," — ''Lincoln.'' 

Imagine that several hundred stones of granite 
were gathered together; that into each stone 
were chiseled the words of one life-saving dispatch ; 
that these were builded together in such manner 
that not one inscription should be hid, which 
should be the capstone? I am not sure but it 
would be the one of William Scott, who died upon 



118 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

the battlefield a few months following his reprieve, 
with Lincoln's letter bound upon his heart: a 
letter as of a father to a son enjoining him to duty. 
But all these telegrams should be worthily pre- 
served. Living stones they are, brilliants shining 
on the printed pages of a history that is sacred. 



WAS HE A DISCIPLINARIAN? 

SO much has been said by writers, including 
the present one, with reference to Lincoln's 
tender-heartedness and clemency, his disposition 
to spare lives instead of sacrificing them, his fre- 
quent prevention of the execution of army offend- 
ers duly convicted and sentenced, that there is 
danger, I believe, of over-emphasizing this side of 
his character. There is a distinct obverse to the 
shield. According to the view of the highest pur- 
pose of army regulations, he was a strict disciplin- 
arian. He had sentiment abundant, but was no 
sentimentalist. Whatever those of the rigid mih- 
tary school thought at the time, he never allowed 
his heart to run away with his head. He was 
always practical, and had good reasons for the 
general plan he followed of moderation and 
clemency toward army offenders. He considered 
first of all that ours was a democratic, chiefly a 
volunteer, army. Moreover, of 3,700,000 mustered 
in 1,500,000 were under eighteen years of age. He 
knew the spirit of such an army was far different 



120 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

from that of a conscripted army of Europe. He 
felt that the moral effect of an execution of one 
of their number for any offense less than that of 
murder, was contrary to the inbred sense of jus- 
tice in the breast of every common soldier. He 
believed that nearly every member of a firing squad 
experienced within him a feeling of rebellion, of 
shame and humiliation for the part assigned to 
him, that he would carry with him through the 
remainder of his life an unhappy and regretful 
memory. 

There is no doubt that Lincoln thought of all 
these things, for he knew intimately the thought 
of common men. 

He considered deliberately, that with rare ex- 
ceptions the military execution of young soldiers 
was really harmful to army morale. Estimating 
the common soldier, he simply put himself in his 
place; and he cared more for the common soldier 
than he did for the rules of tradition. Lincoln 
adopted the theory that every life in the army was, 
or might be made, valuable; every enlisted man 
owed service which he could not render by being 
shot; that killing him was really but a quick, 
almost cowardly, way of disposing of his case, 
and escaping responsibility for him. Being dead, 
the man or the boy could never serve anybody 
again, his family, the comimunity or the state. 



Was He a Disciplinarian? 121 

Being kept alive, he could be made to serve in 
one place or another, and always with a chance of 
reformation in his character. 

Therefore, in nearly every case of commutation 
of the death sentence, it was made conditional. 
The sentence was not abrogated; only suspended, 
indefinitely. It was held by the president him- 
self directly over the head of the culprit. The 
man might not have heard of Damocles, but he 
knew the feeling of an over-hanging sword. 

'^ Until further orders," read the commutation. 
This meant, ''Your life is in my hands, or those of 
the officer I may designate to keep watch upon 
you." 

Oftentimes Mr. Lincoln requested, ''Forward 
the records in this case." A study of these would 
decide him often as to the discipline that should 
be exercised — but discipline there was in every 
case; firm and relentless. The man might be re- 
placed in the ranks of his regiment, where in all 
conscience his lot would not be easy, with the eye 
of everyone upon him. If the records did not 
justify this confidence on the part of the Presi- 
dent, the man's sentence was often commuted to 
hard labor in a military prison or elsewhere under 
guard, for the remaining period of enlistment or 

during the war." 

Here is a dispatch so unusual yet characteristic 



a 



122 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

of the president's inflexible policy of real dis- 
cipline, that I wish to quote it in closing: 

Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Dec. 29, 1864. 
To Major-General Butler: 

There is a man in Company I, Eleventh Connecticut Vols, 
at Chapin's Farm, Va., under assumed name of William Stan- 
ley, but whose real name is Frank R. Judd, who is under 
arrest and probably about to be tried for desertion. He is 
the son of our present minister to Prussia, who is a close 
personal friend of Senator Trumbull and myself. We are not 
willing for the boy to be shot, but we think it is as well that 
his trial go regularly on, suspending execution until further 
orders from me, and reporting to me. 

A. Lincoln. 

Young Judd was to be subject to the same trial 
and discipline as others, with the same kind of 
sentence hanging over his head. 

^^ Tempering justice with mercy ^^ is the saying 
oft quoted. Lincoln had a way now and then of 
reversing time-old maxims. For example, ''Right 
makes might" was the closing note of his Cooper 
Institute speech. He tempered mercy with 
justice. 



il 



ADVENTURE AND ESCAPE— 1828 

IN studying Lincoln's later achievements it is 
worth while to look back occasionally to the 
experience of his early years. We discover there 
the roots of character, the man in the making. 

''An' where be ye from? " (so the old story went), 
hailed to a fiatboat from the shore. 
''In-ge-anny." 
''What part?'' 

Posey county." 

An' what be ye loaded with?" 
"Fruit an' timber." 
"What kind o' fruit?" 
"Punkins." 

"What kind o' timber?" 
"Hoop-poles!" 

In the "Autobiography" June, 1860, written as 
the base for a campaign "Life," speaking of him- 
self in third person as Abraham, he relates briefly 
and simply some narrow escapes. 

"In his tenth year, he was kicked by a horse 
and apparently killed for a time" — (This occurred 



124 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

many miles from home at a mill that ground by 
horsepower, where he had taken a grist of corn on 
horseback.) It was the same year in which his 
mother died, probably soon after, when new corn 
was ripe. 

Again, ''When he was 19, still residing in 
Indiana, he made his first trip on a flatboat to 
New Orleans. He was a hired hand merely, and 
he and a son of the owner, without other as- 
sistance made the trip." What a venture was this 
for two young fellows in their 'teens down the 
Ohio and lower ]Mississippi ! Think of the toil and 
danger of it, the skill and courage called for in 
the waters wdth their varying currents, waves of 
passing steamboats, and river outlaws. But 
these were not all. ''The nature of the 'cargo- 
load' as it was called, made it necessary for them 
to linger and trade along the sugar coast" (the 
river plantations of Mississippi or Louisiana), 
"and one night they were attacked by seven 
negroes with intent to kill and rob them. They 
were hurt some in the melee, but succeeded in 
driving the negroes from the boat, and then," he 
adds facetiously, they '"cut cable,' 'weighed 
anchor' and left." What sturdy chaps they were! 
It was "all in the game," and they seem to have 
treated the matter lightly. But suppose the ne- 
groes had succeeded; their parents would never 



Adventure and Escape 125 

have learned in all probability what became of 
them. In that case, or if the horse kick had been 
fatal, American history would have been different. 
We may wonder if the ''hired hand^' spared to 
emancipate those negroes or their descendants, 
thirty -five years later, did not think of them while 
writing his proclamation. 

Yes, it was a great adventure for Abraham. 
There was much of imagination in it. He was 
playing that they really sailed a ship at sea; set 
upon by pirates, they ''cut cable/' "weighed 
anchor '^ and escaped. 

The trip was all romantic for the backwoods 
youth; more than a thousand miles along the one 
great channel of commerce, and to the one great 
market of the West. The flatboat was a palace 
floating through a sea of dreams. New scenes 
appeared with every turn, and not a moment of 
the day lacked interest. 

Worth more than any college year was this 
brief term upon the Mississippi, where Lincoln 
went to school in 1828; and Mark Twain some 
years later. 



PAY HEED TO HIS WORDS 

NOT only we of the United States, but those of 
the world at large, might have prevented 
infinite loss and sorrow by taking heed to the 
words of Lincoln. As a hint pertaining to our 
right relations with other peoples, we may note 
the following two sentences of a speech delivered 
previous to his nomination for the presidency. 
It was intended to apply primarily to home con- 
ditions, but the principle enunciated reaches 
farther. 

^'We admit that the United States General 
Government is not charged with the duty of re- 
dressing or preventing all the wrongs in the world. 
But the Government rightfully may, and subject 
to the constitution ought to, redress all wrongs 
which are wrongs to the nation itself.'^ 

Do we not see clearly the application of this 
principle, and the extension of it to the con- 
federated peoples of the earth, who are struggling 
for righteousness and true democracy? And are 
we not one of them? 

The issues of the European war in which we 
took part were essentially the same as those of the 



Pay Heed to His Words 127 

Civil War in the United States. We might indeed 
call it a civil war of the world. 

What was the core of the questions involved? 

Shall a small party, a condensed unit of strong 
men, holding the machinery of government in 
their hands, assume to dominate not only their 
own nation, but, with and by that nation, other 
nations, and the world? Was not this a violation 
of the Constitution of the world, well understood 
though unwritten in form? \\Tiat was the real 
core of the Civil War in this country? An auto- 
cratic party in certain states, strong men united 
by a conmion interest in human property and all 
the social relations created thereby, declared that 
one state should be superior to the Union as a 
whole and might separate itself at will. They 
assumed that a number of such seceding states 
might confederate in splitting the Union and 
forming a new confederation. 

These men, comparatively few, constituted an 
autocracy, a privileged class, largely hereditary, 
who dominated everything within their states. 
They controlled education or largely prevented 
it, placing the ban on free and true information, 
as did the German autocracy. 

The Constitution of the United States, by which 
all states were bound, provided for the election 
of a president and ether officers of the General 



1^8 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

Government. In accordance with this provision, 
Mr. Lincoln, by legal and fair election, was made 
president. 

* There was not the slightest violation of law 
involved, either by him or his party. The question 
following was simple. Shall the majority rule in 
accordance with the law to which all are equally 
bound? This was the plain proposition in the 
forefront of Mr. Lincoln's deliverances on his way 
to Washington. 

Those of all parties, in the North, with few ex- 
ceptions, gave the answer '^yes.'' They knew 
what the issue was; they had full and free infor- 
mation. The leaders of the South, the autocracy, 
also knew, and said ^*no!" The common people 
of the South had not free information, but misin- 
formation. They did not know they were fighting 
to perpetuate and extend class government, not 
only on others, but themselves. A large propor- 
tion of the whites were unable to read, being 
without free schools. If they did read a news- 
paper they were none the wiser. They made up 
the mass and bulk of common soldiers, being 
officered by the governing class. In all these tilings 
they were as the common soldiery of Germany. 

* Alexander H. Stephens told the Convention in Georgia that 
there existed no legal cause or excuse for secession — yet he bowed 
to the will of his party and accepted the Vice-Presidency of the 
Confederacy. 



Pay Heed to His Words 129 

But they were not, like many of the German sol- 
diers, cruel or brutal. They had a very different 
heredity, and the inborn spirit of true chivalry. 
They were honest people misguided, as Lincoln 
knew, and he had for them only thoughts of pity 
and deeds of kindness. 



CAMPAIGN EXPENSES 

TO a political supporter in Illinois, well meaning, 
no doubt, Lincoln wrote in March, 1860, three 
months previous to his nomination: ''Thanking 
you very sincerely for your kind purposes toward 
me, I am compelled to say the money part of the 
arrangement you propose is, with me, an impos- 
sibihty. I could not raise ten thousand dollars 
if it would save me from the fate of John Brown. 
Nor have my friends, as far as I know, yet reached 
the point of staking any money on my chances of 
success.'' 

To another friend he had written the day before: 
''Allow me to say that I cannot enter the ring on 
the money basis — first, because in the main it is 
wrong; and secondly, I have not and cannot get 
the money. I say in the main, the use of money 
is wrong, but for certain objects in a pohtical con- 
test the use of some is both right and indispensable. 
With me, as with yourself, the long struggle has 
been one of great pecuniary loss. I now distinctly 
say this, that if you shall be appointed a delegate 
to Chicago, I will furnish you one hundred dollars 
to bear the expenses of the trip." He believed. 



Campaign Expenses 131 

evidently, that his friend was even worse off than 
himself. 

Looking back now it is easy to believe that in 
1858 '^ money influence^' in Illinois may have 
been strong enough, directly and indirectly, to 
defeat Lincoln and elect Douglas. On the part of 
Lincoln and his party the battle was fought en- 
tirely upon the one moral issue: — opposition to 
the extension of slavery and the creation of any 
more slave states. 

On the other hand, many business interests 
angrily demanded that ''all this agitation be 
stopped,^' because it created financial disturbance, 
especially in our relations with the South. 

Corporate influence was secretly, if not openly, 
arrayed on the side of slavery or compromise. 

George B. McClellan, the young and self-im- 
portant vice-president of the Illinois Central 
Railroad, placed his private car at the disposal of 
Senator Douglas for weeks at a time. With bands 
playing, banners flying, rooters rooting, it tra- 
versed the whole state, sometimes sweeping by a 
''local" or a "freight" on a siding where Lincoln 
sat in the caboose with a few friends, waiting for 
a clear track. 

Once he remarked, with a smile, "I guess they 
don't detect any odor of royalty in our outfit." 

How easy it is now to see that the plain and un- 



182 Lincoln Lessons for Today 

pretending man in the railway '^caboose" was the 
one really great : that the men who swept past him 
were but preparing the way for their own failure 
ultimately. Money and power and show and 
ostentation were all against Lincoln at the time; 
God and Truth were with him. 



A "SIX BIT" CAMPAIGN 

When Lincoln was a candidate for Congress in 
1846 his friends subscribed S200.00 for his cam- 
paign expenses. When the conflict was over he 
gave back to the treasurer $199.25, with the 
statement that his expense had been but 75 cents 
for the entire canvass. WTierever he went he said 
he found friends who cared for him and his horse 
without charge, and he wished the money returned 
to the owners. He had spent three quarters of a 
dollar only; that for a few gallons of cider to treat 
a lot of hands in harvest. 



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